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New LA exhibit restores Pompeii from its ashy ruins
In this file photo, casts of a family of two adults and two children who died together in an alcove in Pompeii, made by filling plaster in the void left by their bodies, are seen during a photo call for the upcoming exhibition entitled 'Life and death Pompeii and Herculaneum', at the British Museum in central London, Tuesday, March 26, 2013. In Los Angeles on Tuesday, the California Science Center opened an exhibit featuring 150 artifacts never shown before outside of Italy.
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Lefteris Pitarakis/AP
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In this file photo, an 1868 painting called "Mount Vesuvius at Midnight" by Albert Bierstadt is shown during an exhibition called "The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection" at The Cleveland Museum of Art Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, in Cleveland. In Los Angeles on Tuesday, the California Science Center opened an exhibit featuring 150 artifacts never shown before outside of Italy.
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Tony Dejak/AP
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A new interactive exhibit that opened Tuesday at the California Science Center takes a look at what was preserved in Pompeii after Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD and features 150 artifacts that haven't been shown before outside of Italy.
Science Center spokesman William Harris said you can see frescoes, gladiator armor, and twisted resin casts of human bodies.
"They basically are people in their final moments of life, and they're quite detailed. You can actually see the clothing they wore, the expressions on their faces," Harris said.
There's also a virtual theater to give you a sense of what a volcanic eruption would be like to experience.
The heat and noxious gases were "hot enough to kill people within moments," Harris said.
"Pompeii: The Exhibition" continues through January in L.A.'s Exposition Park.
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