Pompeii – A life in a Roman town 79CE

This isn’t a Sarah Does Singapore adventure. This is a Random Encounter. Which wasn’t really random at all… BUT, this is not part of the SDS series! No matter, the Adventure Crew went to the Pompeii exhibit! It’s here until 23 January at the National Museum. Free for students as always and $12 for us who had to pay.

It is one of the most depressing exhibits that we’ve been to at the national museum because it tells the story of Pompeii and of the citizens and the whole town being covered with volcanic ash and everything.

There were the usual items of daily use at the exhibit like cosmetics, fishing tools, kitchen appliances etc of course. Oh and there was a little 3d short film showing the reenactment of the eruption of Vesuvius and how the ashes and everything would have covered the town. You don’t really need to watch it since on the exterior of the screening room is the timeline of what would have happened and also a measure on how tall the ashes and debris were layered. Still, since you’d have time, you might as well watch it anyway.

Can’t go to the real Pompeii? It’s ok. There’s a screen there where you can take a virtual tour of the whole area. Pretty much ruins of course and amusingly you can see tourists or people sitting as you look around the place.

Ok, there were lots of metal work too. Also, take note of the helmet on the left there for later. Meanwhile, the bracelet on top there had words inscribed where it was a gift from a master to his slave! Ooh expensive much!

Ok, apparently the Singapore exhibition had a lot of frescoes because the museum requested for it! Most of it is from the House of the Golden Bracelet where pretty much, it was found in a house with a golden bracelet. A really rich house since there were a lot of frescoes in there anyway. The ash from the first few hours of the eruption of the volcano protected them before the next few layers of debris and plumes of ash/lava thingies finished the rest off.

Ok, after going through the whole exhibit, there’s this spot near the end where you get to do activities or read books on Pompeii and Rome! There’s a little short film screening about the possibility of Naples being the next Pompeii due to the proximity of the volcano and the current terrain of it. Anyway, we decided to make the paper helmets cause it’s fun! They’re the same design as the real one exhibited in the gladiator armour area and it’s pretty fun.

I noticed the design and info of the exhibits seem to be from the Melbourne museum, so that’s interesting.

After that, since we were at the national museum, we got to check out the heritage gallery since our tickets let us have access to it too! You get an audio guide and it’s call the “Companion” so you need to listen to it to walk along the areas as you look at the items and exhibits.

The first part looks a bit like cerebro from X-man somehow while the music goes on saying “Singapore, Singapore, Singapooooore” etc. Anyway, if you have LOTS of time, check it out since we spent some hours in there and we still didn’t go through all the paths for it.

So anywho, catch the Pompeii exhibit if you can! The next one after it coming up is going to be GENGHIS KHAN!