Resource pack for primary teachers Pompeii Live: schools 19 June 2013

Life and death Pompeii and Herculaneum 28 March – 29 September 2013

Portrait of baker Terentius Neo and his wife. Pompeii, AD 55–79. © Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei.

About the broadcast The broadcast includes exclusive footage filmed in the Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition and around the British Museum. It covers a broad variety of topics connected with the exhibition including: • the volcano Vesuvius and the science behind the eruption • personal adornment • decorating a Roman house • making a living • food and dining • being a Roman child • preservation and the process of creating the plaster casts of the victims

The broadcast lasts sixty minutes and includes live and pre-recorded segments. Curriculum links The broadcast offers opportunities in the following curriculum areas and for cross-curricular work: History archaeology and how evidence is found, types of evidence, finding out about the lives of men, women and children in the past English the story of the eruption and of the experiences of the people offer great potential for a wide range of kinds of writing and oral work, including poetry and drama Science volcanoes, the advantages and risks of living near a volcano, the process and consequences of eruptions Art and design wall paintings, mosaics, jewellery and decorative objects; patterns, animals, plants PSHE and Citizenship responding to natural disasters, preserving the past, excavating human bodies Dead bodies A section of the broadcast will discuss how the plaster casts of the victims of the eruption were made. Response to the casts can range from exaggerated revulsion to prurient interest to emotional upset. We recommend talking with students about the casts in school, before the broadcast. Discuss how the objects discovered with them inform us about who the people were and what they decided to carry with them in their attempt to escape the eruption, and how they remind us that this distant historical disaster was a real event involving real people.

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Preparation and follow-up Here are a few suggestions of things to do before and after the broadcast to prepare students. Pre-broadcast preparation • Use maps to identify the locations of Pompeii and Herculaneum and to help

students understand the relative positions of the two towns, Naples, Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples.

• The Roman politician and writer Pliny the Younger was an eye witness to the eruption. Read and discuss some extracts from his letters where he describes the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the death of his uncle, Pliny the Elder, and his own experience of the eruption (see page 5).

• Look through the broadcast image bank (see page 4) to familiarise students with some of the objects associated with Pompeii and Herculaneum.

• Look at Roman objects in the Explore section of britishmuseum.org. Post-broadcast follow-up • Discuss the broadcast with your students. What did they enjoy the most and why?

Did they find out anything new? What do they remember about it? • Use the broadcast image bank to remind students about the topics the broadcast

covered. • Create a wall display with students’ input to explain the science behind the

volcanic eruption. • Ask your students to write a review of the broadcast. Use cinema film reviews to

provide guidance and inspiration. • Look at cinema film posters. Students could design their own poster for the

Pompeii Live broadcast. • Ask students what they think can be learned from the casts of the victims and

their associated belongings. A short film about how the casts were made can be viewed on the BBC’s website (see the Further Resouces section below). You could broaden this discussion to the topic of archaeology and how it provides a glimpse into the past.

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Broadcast image bank You can download an image bank at britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/pompeii_and_herculaneum/pompeii_live/schools_event The images are arranged in sections: personal adornment examples of jewellery and a mirror decorating a Roman house a fresco and mosaic making a living a bottle for garum sauce and a painting of a baker and his wife food and dining a photograph of a kitchen followed by a loaf of carbonised bread and a dormouse jar being a Roman child a wooden writing tablet and bulla pendant preservation and plaster casts carbonised cradle and stool plus the famous cast of the dog You will find information about the objects in the Notes section of each slide. You can use the image bank to introduce students to the types of objects they will see in Pompeii Live and to support follow-up activities back in the classroom. Individual images can be printed out for use in small group work.

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Further resources • If you would like background information on Pompeii and Herculaneum or a

more detailed list of resources this can be found in the downloadable exhibition resources for teachers. britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/pompeii_and_herculaneum/schools

• The BBC website has interesting film clips on topics connected with the broadcast which could be helpful when doing your follow up. They cover topics such as the science of the volcanic eruption and the making of plaster casts. They originate from a recently broadcast programme but have been reworked and extra content added. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01706fw/clips

• Pliny the Younger wrote two letters about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. They were addressed to his friend, the historian Tacitus. The first letter focuses on the death of Pliny’s uncle, Pliny the Elder, who was a well-known scholar. The second letter focuses on Pliny’s own experiences. The following link gives a full text of both letters from which you could select extracts to read with your class. www.smatch-international.org/PlinyLetters.html This link is to a video with Pliny reading an adaptation of both letters: dsc.discovery.com/convergence/pompeii/pliny/video.html

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