Pompeii archaeological park: it looks like a pizza that you see on a fresco of over two thousand years ago. Naturally it cannot be seen that tomatoes arrived from America many centuries later and there was still no mozzarella as a dairy product. The first iconographic analysis of the fresco represents a still life; the work has recently emerged as part of the new excavations in theinsula 10 of Regio IX in Pompeii. According to experts, the fresco on the wall of an ancient Pompeian house could represent the distant ancestor of our modern pizza. A food known all over the world, elevated to a World Heritage Site in 2017 as the "traditional art of the Neapolitan pizza maker".
A fresco with the ancestor of our pizza
“Regarding this new discovery, the global value of this site to which we are dedicating our care should be underlined, with the closure of the Great Pompeii Project but also with the launch of new initiatives. The protection and development of heritage, in compliance with art. 9 of the Constitution, are an absolute priority”. The says it Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano regarding the discovery of the still life that emerged from the new excavations of Regio IX.
As the archaeologists of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii explain, it is assumed that next to a goblet of wine, placed on a silver tray, a flat focaccia is depicted which serves as a support for various fruits (identifiable a pomegranate and perhaps a date). . There cake seasoned with spices or perhaps with a type of pesto (moretum in Latin), indicated by yellowish and ocher dots. Furthermore, present on the same tray, dried fruit and a garland of yellow strawberry trees, next to dates and pomegranates. This kind of images, known in ancient times with the name xenia, was inspired by the "hospitable gifts" that were offered to guests according to a Greek tradition dating back to the Hellenistic period (XNUMXrd-XNUMXst century BC).
(Photo Facebook Pompeii Archaeological Park)
