A prototype of a modern pizza was found on a fresco in Pompeii during excavations in Pompeii
Archaeologists excavating in Pompeii have found a fragment of a fresco depicting a dish resembling a prototype of modern pizza.
On the ancient colored image, which once decorated the wall of the house, you can see a silver dish with a flat flatbread and lying on it fresh and dried fruits, including pomegranate and dates. Nearby stands a goblet of red wine. In the house where the mural was found, they also discovered an atrium and a bakery, near which three bodies lay.
“A dish on the wall of an ancient house in Pompeii may be the ancestor of modern pizza” – Staff at the archaeological park in Pompeii
The mural was probably intended to depict the “good gifts” that were offered to guests. This tradition was adopted from the Greeks, and its appearance dates from the 3rd to 1st century BC. It is mentioned in the texts of Virgil and Philostratus.
Gabriel Zuchtrigel, director of the park, believes that the fresco found demonstrates “the contrast between the modest treat that marks the sphere between the everyday and the sacred (…) and the luxury of silver and the power of the creative impulse”. In this sense, Zuchtrigel emphasized, it’s hard not to think of pizza, which was considered the food of the poor but is now on the menu of the most luxurious restaurants.
The verdict for Pompeii was the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius, which occurred in 79 AD. A cloud of gas covered the city and ash covered almost all the buildings. This natural disaster did not leave a chance to those residents of Pompeii, who did not have time to leave the city, but preserved it for study by descendants. Excavations began several centuries ago, but archaeologists today continue to find new buildings and artifacts under the ash layer.
