Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Before I start my presentation, let me introduce myself. My name is Ecem Yıldız, a sophomore student in the department of sociology. Today, I’d like to talk about an exhibition taking place in British Museum from end of the March to end of the September this year. The name of the exhibition is “Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum.” News about the exhibition takes place in internet page of BBC as “The shock of the old.” and it was published second may of this year. The reason why I chose this is that; this exhibition aims to show that domestic life of Roman Empire was not so different from our ordinary life and it is the first time for such major exhibition in London for almost forty years. The exhibition offers a unique taste of everyday life in Roman house by grouping in its various rooms and spaces the objects preserved by catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius for anno domini seventy-nine, most of them have never been seen outside Italy.
Firstly, According to Alastair Sooke, who is an arts journalist, “the Romans loved art full of violence and sex. But where modern viewers see smut and gore, ancient eyes may have seen something different.” I agree with Sooke. Sex , violence and enjoy was a part of Romans lifes especially in Pompeii and slaves, fights of gladiators, homosexuality, drinks and many things were proof of this. Although sex and violence were normal for Romans, modern viewers do not see same thing because different cultures view same things in different ways. Art that we consider shockingly erotic or violent was common place in the Roman world.
Secondly, according to Sooke, the exhibition offers