This loaf of bread was part of an exhibit of artifacts from Pompeii that I saw at the Boston Museum of Science back in February of 2012. This bread was one of many loaves found in a bakery oven, preserved from when the Roman city was covered in layers of volcanic ash when Vesuvius erupted in the year 79 a.d. (You may realize that I exaggerated in the bread’s age. Or rounded. The bread is only 1934 years old, and a few months.)
I found the exhibit to be fascinating for the glimpses of everyday life that were so strikingly preserved. The exhibit was also haunting in that it contained not only relics of life in that city, but forms of many who died. The imprints of their bodies and clothing were found in the cemented layers of ash, and plaster casts were made from these hollows, to reveal the shapes of individuals posed as they were in their last moments of life.
This week’s friday foto finder assignment was to share a photo for the theme of “old.” To see what other old things have been unearthed, and to share your own, pay a visit to the fff blog.
collecting tokens 
Poignant.
Mine is kind of wishful thinking…
http://azahar.me/2014/03/07/friday-foto-finder-old/
Marvelous! Must have been a fascinating exhibition. That bread looks edible. :D
Amazing. I didn’t know that this bread even existed. Wonder what recipe they used to make it.
I’ve always been fascinated/horrified/moved by Pompeii, since I first read about it as a child. That loaf is so poignant, never to be broken by any hungry person’s hands.