British Museum: Life and death Pompeii and Herculaneum

More than 250 archaeological remains from the lives of people in the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum will feature in a new exhibition at the British Museum next year. The two cities on Italy's southern coast were buried following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79. The exhibition will include casts of some of the volcano's victims. The British Museum said it will explore "real" Roman people, not the emperors and gladiators portrayed in films. The event will be the first about Pompeii and Herculaneum in London for 40 years and will bring together recently discovered objects and finds from earlier excavations, many of which have never been seen outside Italy.