Well-diggers found a buried Roman city, and its victims were cast in plaster

Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii and Herculaneum under ash and pumice in 79 AD, preserving them almost intact. Rediscovered by chance in the 16th century and excavated seriously from the 1740s, archaeologists later found hollow voids left by decomposed bodies and filled them with plaster, casting the dead's final poses.

— Mary Beard, Pompeii — Profile Books, 2008
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