"Last weekend I spent a couple of hours with the remains of one of the human victims of the eruption of Vesuvius" writes Mary Beard, as she wanders through the rooms of a new exhibition about Pompeii, the "City of the Dead".
The display at the J Paul Getty museum in Malibu is one of several Pompeii exhibitions running in different museums around the world - and very similar to one coming to the British Museum in the spring.
As she makes her way through the bodies - or "anti-bodies" as she refers to them - she ponders questions of privacy, archaeology and restoration.
Producer: Adele Armstrong.