Pompeii Casts. Victim 16, possibly a female, found in 1895 in the torcularium of the Villa Pisanella at Boscoreale.

The torcularium, so big and well defended by a strong cover, was believed to be a safe shelter at the moment of the catastrophe, and the last inhabitants of the villa took refuge from the lapilli, and there they met their deaths.  On the edge of the forum to the left of the entrance (a), three corpses were overturned, on top of one another. Of one, [victim 17] the one that lay along the bench and with head on the edge, it was possible to make an entire plaster-cast. He was on his back with his body stretched out and his head thrown backward, with right arm raised and almost resting on his elbow on the ground, with left arm stretched out along his side and enveloped in his garment, and with legs and feet out in the cold, as seen in fig. 53b.

Victim 16. Boscoreale, Villa della Pisanella. 1897. Torcularium. Body cast of female head.

The body lay across the sides of victim 17, with the head above the bench.

Only the plaster-cast of the head was taken (fig. 53c), and it was acknowledged that it was of a woman, with raised hair and drapery around her neck and mouth.

Around the skeletons were gathered a few oxidised copper and silver coins, and some bronze rings. On the woman’s skull were two earrings of wide hoops of gold, around which three topazes were set. There appeared also traces of silver ornaments and iron tools which were unrecognisable because of oxidisation. Towards the window, in the vicinity of these corpses, the skeleton of a dog was stretched out.

See Pasqui A., La Villa Pompeiana della Pisanella presso Boscoreale, in Monumenti Antichi VII 1897, fig. 53c.

Victim 16. Boscoreale, Villa della Pisanella. 1895. Torcularium.

The victim was part of a group of three who died one on top of the other. The victim had her head on the bench in room "a" inside room (P), and part of her body on the sides of cast no. 17 from which she was facing away. Furthermore, her body covered the lower part of victim no. 87.

The body was found in 1895, in the torcularium of the Villa del Tesoro, in località Pisanella, Boscoreale.

Antoine Heron de Villefosse hypothesised that she was the owner of the villa and was named Maxima since that name was incised 45 times on the silver found in the cistern of the torcularium. Finally, near the window of the room was the skeleton of a dog.

She had folds of a probable shawl over the mouth and chin, which appears to be knotted at the nape of the neck.

The victim was probably a female of 20 years of age or over.

See Osanna, N., Capurso, A., e Masseroli, S. M., 2021. I Calchi di Pompei da Giuseppe Fiorelli ad oggi: Studi e Ricerche del PAP 46, p. 353-4, Calco n. 16.

Victim 16. Villa della Pisanella, Boscoreale. December 2018. Torcularium P, plaster-cast of a female head. Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.

Boscoreale Antiquarium inv. no 25898.

Victim 16. Villa della Pisanella, Boscoreale. December 2018.

Torcularium P, information card from Boscoreale Antiquarium. Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella.

The gives the inventory number of 25898.

Osanna et al give the inventory number as 90538.

See Osanna, N., Capurso, A., e Masseroli, S. M., 2021. I Calchi di Pompei da Giuseppe Fiorelli ad oggi: Studi e Ricerche del PAP 46, p. 353 Calco n. 16.

Victim 16. Villa della Pisanella, Boscoreale. May 2018.

Torcularium P. Plaster-cast of the head of a woman, with raised hair and drapery around her neck and mouth.

Next to it were found two gold earrings with topaz.

Now in Boscoreale Antiquarium, inventory number 25898. Photo courtesy of Buzz Ferebee.

Victim 16. Villa della Pisanella, Boscoreale. Gold earrings with green (glass according to Louvre) inserts found next to victim 16.

Now in the Louvre. Inventory numbers BJ408 and BJ409. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Tony Querrec.

Victim 18 on left and victim 16 on right. Boscoreale, Villa della Pisanella. 1923. Torcularium.

Body cast of head and abdomen of victim 18 and the head of a woman, victim 16, in Pompeii Antiquarium.

See Sogliano, A., 1923. Guida di Pompei: 3rd ed. Milano, p. 5.

The torso was destroyed in the bombing of 1943 and the woman's head damaged and only partly recovered.

See Garcia y Garcia, L., 2006. Danni di guerra a Pompei. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider, p. 198, fig. 463.