The scrawled etching in stone reads: “I’d like to be the gem in your ring for just an hour to get the kisses you give when you press the seal.” The ancient Pompeii graffiti is a reminder of how little has changed in the last 2,000 years or so — think of the far-less-creative tourists recently caught carving their initials into the walls of Rome’s Colosseum.

There are intriguing links to the present scattered throughout the Museum of Science and Industry’s popular exhibit “Pompeii: The Exhibition,” which the museum announced Thursday is being extended through Jan. 15, 2024. It had been set to close in early September.