Pork, goat, fish and beans to go? The ancient Romans ran hot food just like in New York.
Images of a newly discovered and beautifully decorated street food cart in Pompeii reveal what fast food the Romans would have enjoyed before the ancient city was destroyed in a volcanic eruption almost 2,000 years ago.
The startling discovery marks the first time a hot food and beverage restaurant – known as a thermopolium – has been excavated in Pompeii, Massimo Osanna, the longtime head of Pompeii’s archeological park, said on Saturday.
Part of the street sales counter was unearthed last year as part of an effort to straighten the ruined ruins of the ancient city. As excavations continued, archaeologists discovered a multi-sided counter, with wide holes containing deep pots of hot food placed at its top, not unlike the installation of modern salad bars.
The counter is decorated with frescoes with images of an underwater nymph riding a horse, two left upside down and a rooster and a dog on a leash. The inside of the painting was vandalized with vulgar graffiti.
The images with the duck and the chicken represent what was on the menu that day, say anthropologists. Fragment of duck bone was found in one of the containers, along with the remains of goats, pigs, fish and snails. A wine container contained traces of ground beans, which were added to the ancient wine for flavor and coloring, according to Pompei anthropologist Valeria Amoretti.
“We know what they ate that day,” Osanna said. The food remains “what is popular among the common people,” Osanna said, noting that street food was not frequented by the Roman elite.
Workers also unearthed a bronze crate, nine amphorae, which were popular food containers in Roman times, a few balloons, a ceramic oil container and the complete skeleton of a dog.
The canine skeleton surprised archaeologists because of its small size of 8-10 inches; a discovery that “attests to selective growth in Roman times to achieve this result,” said Amoretti.
As any New York street vendor who deserves his salt knows: location is everything. Scientists noticed that this restaurant seemed to have a good one, next to a small square with a fountain.
Pompeii was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
With AP wires