The painting is 2,000 years old and shows a kind of flatbread that serves as a base for fruit.
A 2,000-year-old painting in the archaeological park of Pompeii shows a flatbread that could be considered a type of pizza. The depiction on the wall of an ancient house may be a distant ancestor of modern pizza, according to a first iconographic analysis of a still-life fresco that has emerged from new excavations in Pompeii in recent days, experts said on Tuesday.
It is said that a flat bread is represented next to a glass of wine on a silver platter, serving as a base for various fruits, including a pomegranate and a date, seasoned with spices or a kind of pesto. There are also dried fruits and a flower garland on the same tray.
The fresco is in a house that is being excavated. AFP/DISTRIBUTION
Discovered in Pompeii, the fresco was found in the atrium of a house that is being excavated. Not far from the house there was a bakery, which had already been partially exploited between 1888 and 1891 and whose investigations were resumed last January.
The entire excavation site covers an area of about 3,200 square meters, almost an entire city block of the ancient city that was buried by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It is part of a broader concept developed over the last decade that aims to correct and solve the hydrogeological problems of the excavation fronts, that is, the boundary between the excavated part and the unexplored part of the ancient city.
The ancient city of Pompeii was at the foot of the Vesuvius volcano. During eruptions in 79 AD, ash, mud and lava buried settlements and partially preserved the city. Pompeii was rediscovered in the 18th century. The excavation site, which repeatedly reveals sensational finds, is one of Italy’s most popular sights and one of the country’s most important tourist attractions. (APA)