They discover a thermopoly in Pompeii: restaurant with leftover food

The Italian Ministry of Culture and the Archaeological Area announced what they considered “another extraordinary discovery in Pompeii, in the new excavations undertaken as part of the Region V maintenance and restoration project”.

It is a thermopoly, where food was served to the lower classes of the city, perfectly preserved with the counter depicting a sea nymph on horseback and other animals with colors so bright as to appear three-dimensional, they explain.

But what has surprised archaeologists the most is the discovery in the containers of the remains of this food sold on the street, which is the origin of “takeaway” food.

In fact, it was custom for Pompeiians to consume hot food and drink in the open air, and archaeologists and experts working in the Pompei Archaeological Park are already studying the material to see how much this discovery added to the knowledge about the eating habits of the time. can enlarge. Novel.

“In addition to the weather being a testimony to everyday life in Pompeii, the opportunities to analyze this thermopoly are exceptional, as for the first time an entire environment has been excavated with advanced methodologies and technologies that yield unpublished data,” he explains. Massimo Osanna, General Manager of the Pompeii Archaeological Park.

Now with an interdisciplinary work, several analyzes will be performed in the laboratory to find out the contents of the “dolia”, the earthenware containers in which food was cooked in ancient Rome.

The decorations on the thermopoly counter – the first to emerge from the excavation – show on the front the image of a nereid (nymph) on horseback in a marine setting and, on the short side, the image probably from the same shop as a commercial sign.

In addition, various storage and transport materials were found in the thermopoly: nine amphorae, a bronze container, two pots and a ceramic pot.

The floor of the entire room consists of the so-called “cocciopesto”, a waterproof covering of fragments of terracotta with in some places fragments of polychrome marble.

Thermopolies, where drinks and hot dishes were served, as the name of Greek origin indicates, kept in large dolia (pots) embedded in the masonry bench, were very common in the Roman world, where it was common to keep the prandium (the food) outdoors. .

There are about eighty in Pompeii alone, but none of them completely painted the counter, confirming the exceptional nature of the find.

The first analysis of food

Early analyzes confirm that the paintings on the counter represent, at least in part, the food and drink actually sold within the thermopoly.Two wild ducks are represented among the paintings on the counter and in fact a fragment of duck bone has been found in one of the containers, along with pigs, goats, fish and land snails, testifying to the wide variety of products of animal origin that are used to prepare the dishes.

On the other hand, the first archeobotanical analyzes made it possible to identify fragments of deciduous oak, likely belonging to structural elements of the countertop.

At the bottom of a dolio, identified as a wine container at the base of the drinking bottle, contained in it, the presence of beans was identified, deliberately ground, which, as claimed by Apicius, were used to enhance the flavor and color of the wine. making it white.

Another interesting piece of information is the discovery of human bones, which have been changed in part by the passage of tunnels created in modern times by clandestine excavators in search of precious objects.

Some belong to a person at least 50 years old who was probably lying on a bed with traces left at the time of the arrival of the pyroclastic flow that destroyed the city.

Other bones, yet to be explored, belong to a second person and were found in a large dolio, which may have been placed there by early excavators.