[ad_1]
During excavations in the ancient city, researchers have found a completely preserved Thermopolium: a snack bar. There were even small remains of food in the amphorae.
Fully preserved – the entire L-shaped stone counter.
Photo: Luigi Spina (Keystone)
And again Pompeii opens a window to antiquity and its everyday life, suggestive and spectacular. During excavations in a part of the submerged city that was previously closed to visitors, archaeologists found a fully preserved thermopoly for the first time. This is how the ancient Romans called their bars with displays facing the street, from the Greek “thermo”, “hot” and “pennyroyal”, “I sell”. Something like street food with takeout. Fast food ahead of time. In Italy it is still called today, as it was then, namely “tavola calda”, a warm table.
Everything is intact, the entire L-shaped stone counter with the holes in which they put the terracotta amphorae with the food already prepared. Directly for consumption. The ancient Romans apparently also lived in a hurry and sometimes meals were eaten while walking. In Pompeii alone there were 80 such restaurants, one on each corner. Remains of some have been discovered over the years. But this one, in a plaza with a cistern and fountain, seems to have been still in operation yesterday. The skeletons of two men were found behind the counter, they were both in their 50s when they died. Was it one of the owners?
Like a buffet: the recesses in the counter where the terracotta amphorae were left with the food already prepared.
Photo: Luigi Spina (Keystone)
The colorful paintings on the counter are intact, as if freshly painted. The slightly larger central image shows the sea nymph Nereida on the back of a seahorse, probably the restaurant’s logo. In others you can see ducks and roosters, animals that were slaughtered, boiled and sold there. What does the dog on a leash mean?
When the researchers opened one of the holes, a strong smell of wine rose to their nostrils, a greeting from AD 79, the year Vesuvius closed off the city on the Gulf of Naples with a shower of lava, ash and fire. Surprised, she buried it under a blanket and the moment crystallized. Since the 18th century, Pompeii has been slowly appearing and constantly providing new perspectives on life in ancient times.
Probably the restaurant’s logo: the sea nymph Nereid on the back of a seahorse.
Photo: Luigi Spina (Keystone)
“This is an extraordinary discovery,” says Massimo Osanna, director of the Parco Archeologico di Pompei. For the first time you worked in a truly interdisciplinary way. Among other things, archaeobotanists and zoologists, anthropologists, geologists and volcanologists participated. Now you are studying the small remains of food that were in the amphorae to learn more about the eating habits in ancient times, the specialties and culinary preferences, at least those of the restaurant of the goddess of the sea in Pompeii. They found not only chicken and duck bones, but also pigs, fish, snails, and goats. “It’s a taste of Mediterranean cuisine,” says Osanna.
“This is a foretaste of Mediterranean cuisine”
The Italian Minister of Culture, Dario Franceschini, goes a little further: “This discovery is a great example of the recovery of our country.” Pompeii is now considered worldwide as a model for the protection and management of cultural heritage. “That is why we continue to investigate and discover even more wonderful things.” From April you should be able to visit the snack bar of old, if the pandemic allows travel again by then. Osanna says, “This is our gift for Easter.”
