SINGAPORE.- The National Museum of Singapore transports visitors
back 2000 years in time to experience life and death in the
ancient Roman Empire. A new exhibition, Pompeii: Life in a Roman
Village 79 CE reveals daily life in a city steeped in legend and
mystery. Pompeii and its neighboring cities were buriedand
frozen in timeafter the fateful eruption of Mt. Vesuvius on
August 24, 79 CE. After being forgotten for nearly 1700 years,
the city was accidentally rediscovered by well-digging shepherds
in 1748. Since then, its excavation has yielded extraordinary
artifactsfrom the rarest of art objects to the most common
trinkets of daily useand provided a comprehensive portrait of
the life of a city at the height of the Roman Empire. Amazingly,
archaeologists have also been able to piece together the final
moments of the people of Pompeii. By pouring plaster into
cavities in the volcanic ash left by the victims bodies,
archaeologists were able to create molds of the final moments of
life in this once-thriving seap