During excavations in the Regio IX area of the Pompeii Archaeological Park near Naples, a 2,000-year-old fresco depicting a dish that may be the prototype for modern pizza, informed Independent. Park staff clarified that they are murals in the corridor of an old Pompeian house, in the annex to which a bakery used to be.
The building was partially explored in 1888-1891, and in January 2022 excavations resumed. Archaeologists unearthed the atrium, the existence of which was assumed by their predecessors in the 19th century, and discovered the entrance to the bakery. Skeletons of three victims of the Vesuvius eruption were found in work areas near the furnace in May–June 2023, and a still life was found on the wall of the atrium.
“Pompeii never ceases to amaze, it is a box in which new treasures are constantly being discovered,” Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said.
The fresco found represents a silver tray on which stands a goblet of wine and appetizers. Some of them – presumably pomegranate seeds and dates with spices and moretum (an old version of pesto with cheese) – are placed on round, thin bread. Nearby are nuts, dried fruits and yellow fruits of the strawberry tree.
This type of fresco, known in antiquity as xenia – “hospitality” in ancient Greek, represented gifts brought to guests according to a tradition dating back to the Hellenistic period (3rd-1st centuries BC). . About 300 such images have been discovered in towns in the Vesuvian area, but a fresco recently discovered in the archaeological park of Pompeii “amazes with its remarkable workmanship” which allows the details to be seen.
Park staff explain that in ancient times, unleavened dough cakes were used at parties instead of plates. Virgil writes on this subject in the Aeneid: in book VII, the Trojan warriors, after long wanderings, stop at the mouth of the Tiber and appease their hunger for fruit, for lack of utensils, by placing them on dry cakes , then, not being satisfied, they eat the dough itself. This scene is presented as the fulfillment of the prophecy of the harpy who, furious, threatened the Trojans to “gnaw the tables for lack of food”.
Such a flatbread, according to the Pompeii Archaeological Park, is also depicted in a recently discovered fresco – but calling it “ancient pizza” isn’t entirely correct, “given the absence of the most characteristic ingredients – tomatoes and mozzarella”. Experts called the flatbread the ancient fresco focaccia (panis focacius), but admitted that it can be considered “a distant ancestor of modern pizza”.
The director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, Gabriel Zuchtrigel, saw a deep meaning in the fresco found and advises paying attention to the contrast between modest food and “the luxury of silver utensils”, which symbolize “the bucolic simplicity of life countryside and the refinement of artistic images.” According to Zuchtrigel, the analogy with pizza really comes to mind here, which “was born as a dish of the poor in southern Italy, conquered the whole world and is now served in starred restaurants”.
At the time of the Roman Empire, pizza in the modern sense could not exist, remember Independent, since tomatoes were brought from America to Europe only in the 16th century. Pompeii was buried under ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79.
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