Archeologists have excavated an entire hot food and wine shop that served up the ancient equivalent of street food, which gives a rare insight into Greco-Roman life.
Called a thermopolium, the discovery could provide valuable information on the gastronomic habits of people in the ancient city before it was buried in a volcanic eruption in 79 AD.
“This is an extraordinary find. It’s the first time we are excavating an entire thermopolium,” Massimo Ossana, director of the Pompeii archaeological park said on Saturday.
They also found traces of nearly 2,000-year-old food in some of the deep terra cotta jars in the shop, which includes traces of pork, fish, snails and beef.
“Our preliminary analyses shows that the figures drawn on the front of the counter, represent, at least in part, the food and drink that were sold there,” anthropologist Valeria Amoretti said.
She adds that the discovery was a “testimony to the great variety of animal products used to prepare dishes.”
Crushed beans, which were used to modify the taste of wine, were found at the bottom of one jar.
The store’s counter features brightly colored frescoes that depict animals that were part of the ingredients in the food sold, such as chicken and two ducks hanging upside down.
Among those found with the thermopolium are decorated bronze drinking bowl, wine flasks, ceramic jars used for cooking soups and stews and amphora used for storing or transporting liquids.
Human bones were also found near the ancient snack shop, including those of a man in his 50s near a cot.
“The shop seems to have been hastily closed and abandoned by its owners, but it is possible that someone, perhaps the oldest man, stayed and died in the first phase of the eruption, during the collapse of the attic,” said Osanna.
The thermopolium is not yet open to visitors, as work was extended to preserve the entire site as best as possible.