Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.8808
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Cemetery tower at Atena
Date
1857-1858
Creator
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 87mm
width (print): 76mm
width (print): 76mm
Subject
Description
View of the collapsed tower in the ancient cemetery of Atena, Italy. The tower had been used to inter the dead: following the 1857 Great Neapolitan Earthquake, bones were ejected from the structure. "...a large mass had been thrown, and had exposed to view, the surface of a solid cylinder of human bones, of several feet in depth...many of the bones and some skulls had been thrown from the mass along with the debris of the wall..." The card mount has an inscription in French below the photograph, "Vielle tour dans l'ancien cemetiere a Atena". Numbered in pencil "191". A detailed description of earthquake damage to the tower appears in Mallet's 1862 Report, vol.1 p.326-327. Collected by Robert Mallet.
Object history
From a series of photographs of the aftermath of the earthquake described in Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857: The first principles of observational seismology as developed in the report to the Royal Society..., by Robert Mallet, 2 vols., (London, Chapman and Hall, 1862). Many images were omitted from Mallet's book, but cited as being in this Royal Society collection (MS/225).
For a description of Mallet's expedition and the circumstances and attributions of the photographs see: Graziano Ferrari and Anita McConnell, "Robert Mallet and the 'Great Neapolitan Earthquake' of 1857", Notes and Records of the Royal Society 59 (1) 2005 pp.45-64. “Grellier” is an unidentified photographer, possibly an assistant to Alphonse Bernoud.
For a description of Mallet's expedition and the circumstances and attributions of the photographs see: Graziano Ferrari and Anita McConnell, "Robert Mallet and the 'Great Neapolitan Earthquake' of 1857", Notes and Records of the Royal Society 59 (1) 2005 pp.45-64. “Grellier” is an unidentified photographer, possibly an assistant to Alphonse Bernoud.
Associated place