This is a University Project.
Sarah Walker-Leptich
UoT Student, First Year
Sarah Walker is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities at the University of Toronto, with a major in Economics and minors in Classical Civilizations and the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. She also holds a BA in Marketing from Sheridan College and a certificate in Competing in the Age of AI from Harvard Business School.
Alongside her academic journey, Sarah works full-time as Head of Sales at an AI consulting company. She brings a decade of experience in tech, having previously held roles at both Google and Amazon. Driven by a deep passion for continuous learning and the pursuit of knowledge, Sarah thrives at the intersection of technology, history, and human insight.
Outside of work and school—when time allows—you’ll find her reading, building LEGO masterpieces, cuddling her cats, or exploring hiking trails with her two dogs.
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With the help of ChatGPT, my portrait was reimagined as an ancient Roman fresco. Blending my passion for ancient roman art and Generative AI.
About the Project
The Inspiration Behind Vault of Vesuvius
This project stems from my fascination with Roman Pompeii art and my constant pursuit of trying to purchase really good replicas, combined with 10+ years of working within tech and emerging technologies like NFTs, blockchain, and AI.
The Wolf Den
At the beginning of the year I read the trilogy The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper and fell in love with Pompeii and her characters of Pompeii. Although fiction, many of them are based on real people of the past like Julia Felix, whose frescoes from her villa are included in Vault of Vesuvius, and Pliny the Elder, both of whom died during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
In the Wolf Den books I became really curious about the establishment that the books are based off of - the Wolf Den, or the "Lupanar of Pompeii", which means "brothel." I also found it incredibly interesting that the founding brothers of Rome, Romulus and Remus, were brought up by a lupa meaning either She Wolf or prostitute. The very founding myth of Rome could have been started by the help of a prostitute, and then over history she was forgotten and eventually woven into a she wolf.
The Forgotten Women of Pompeii
What I loved about Elodie's books is that she focuses on the forgotten women of Pompeii - women whose lives were just as important as the rich aristocrats with large villas. In the book she also mentions the frescoes in the brothel above the women's dorms (if you could call them that, they were outrageously small living spaces for these women). I became obsessed with the frescoes of these women and have been on the hunt to find good quality replicas.
Although I find all of the frescoes that have been captured in this "vault" by a complete tragedy stunning, it is the frescoes from the Wolf's Den that capture my attention the most. I often ponder about these forgotten women of Pompeii - who were likely slaves. Women stolen from their homes in Britannia, Dacia, Hispania, Ethiopia, while their family members were brutally killed, and then forced into being a slave and sex worker.
From Want to Ethics
The original idea started as a "want" to own a piece of history I could never own, in the form of a more accessible way like an NFT.
What is an NFT? An NFT, or Non-Fungible Token, is a unique digital certificate stored on blockchain technology that verifies ownership and authenticity of a specific digital asset, making it impossible to duplicate or forge.
However, early on in this project I received thought-provoking feedback from TA Prabjeet Johal on the ethical issues of owning historical artifacts. This reminded me of the first chapter of our textbook "The History of Roman Art" which immediately starts with the ethical complications of whether it should be right for anyone or any corporation to own a piece of history. I dive deeper into this on the page "Ethical Heritage."
A Ethical Path Forward
As I researched this problem, it became a slight obsession to see how I could rework my project so that it was highly ethical and that it left the world in a better place. To quote Augustus, "I found Rome in brick and left it in marble." Although that quote can be problematic on its own because of how he afforded all that marble, I take that quote quite literally in my life since studying classical civilizations. I strive to leave the world better than I found it - just without the suffering or devastation of civilizations like the Roman Empire.
