Street food
Archaeologists in Pompeii have found an ancient fast food shop.
Known as a termopolium, Latin for hot drinks counter, the shop was discovered in the archaeological park’s Regio V site, which is not yet open the public, and unveiled on Saturday.
Traces of nearly 2,000-year-old food were found in some of the deep terra cotta jars containing hot food which the shop keeper lowered into a counter with circular holes.
Like the big metal pots you have on steam tables now.
The front of the counter was decorated with brightly coloured frescoes, some depicting animals that were part of the ingredients in the food sold, such as a chicken and two ducks hanging upside down.
The golden arches of their time, but much more attractive.
Archaeologists also found a decorated bronze drinking bowl known as a patera, ceramic jars used for cooking stews and soups, wine flasks and amphora.
This is fascinating. I love that things are still being discovered there. I could read this stuff all day long and never weary of it.
Same here, and this especially. It’s so…so like us, so familiar, so everyday. A street food shop with bright decorative frescoes…who doesn’t relate?
There were some street vendor shops that had been excavated back when I first went to Pompeii in the ’90’s (of course all us Plinys have some association with that city) . Exploring that town at the time, I was struck with how ‘modern’ Roman life seemed minus electricity. Their hydraulic works are a wonder even today. In fact, our fair city of Portland has used a similar completely gravity fed water system for well over a century.
Pliny, the Romans were also using some of the same sewage treatment methods we are now using. They were so advanced, and yet my students assume they were like cave dwellers with no art, no literature, nothing but big mammoth bones to eat…and, of course, stupid. They didn’t know much, they think. I have long been fascinated by those old cultures…not just the western, but the eastern, as well, are astonishing in the advanced features of their civilizations.
Iknklast, I blame Hollywood religious movies. They always show Rome as evil devils hunting down Christians from pale marble buildings. None of the vibrant color you see in Pompeii and Herculaneum and none of the richness of their lives..
When I visited Pompeii I was surprised at how little of the area of the city has been excavated–there will continue to be amazing things found there for centuries. This is a particularly fancy one (or particularly well-preserved one), but yes, these little fast food shops are all over the already-excavated city as well; my friends and I took photos of ourselves pretending to serve and eat whatever had been in those stone bowls.
Romans also had commemorative glasses (with images of gladiators on them, that you could buy at the arenas where you went to watch them compete), chip and dip bowls, and low coffee tables–I remember remarking when looking at one Roman living room recreation in a museum somewhere that it looked exactly like something from a ’50s house; the only thing it was missing was the TV.
Most of the Roman remains that people go to look at are monuments that give little idea of the industrial skill and production methods that made them possible. However, not far from where I live, at Barbegal (near Arles), there is a Roman factory that is well worth a visit. You can read about it at Wikipedia better than I can describe it, so I won’t. One thing I found particularly impressive was the cement the Romans had, the quality of which has not been exceeded since.