Pr. Estelle Lazer (Sidney University) Creating the past: the impact of popular culture on the interpretation of human remains from Pompeii and Herculaneum When Mount Vesuvius exploded over Pompeii in AD79, it preserved an amazingly detailed record of everyday life in the ancient world. Unsurprisingly, when archaeologists began excavating the site in the eighteenth century, their discoveries inspired the imaginations of writers, painters, sculptors and architects. Forensic archaeologist Estelle Lazer spent years working in Pompeii, and discovered that the romantic stories that developed were not always true to the evidence but nevertheless had a profound effect on the interpretation of the human remains discovered at Pompeii and Herculaneum, which continues to this day.