A still life depicting a cup of wine and what looks suspiciously like a pizza has been discovered in Pompeii, the archaeological site near Naples in southern Italy announced on Tuesday.
The fresco on a black background, “which strikes for its remarkable quality of execution”, was discovered during excavations on the walls of an ancient house in the famous Roman city, destroyed and buried by ashes during the eruption. of Vesuvius in the year 79.
“What we see in this Pompeian painting dating from 2000 years ago looks like a pizza, but obviously it is not, since it lacks some of the most characteristic ingredients such as tomatoes and mozzarella”, explains in a press release the management of the site classified as World Heritage by Unesco.
Round in shape, the “pizza” in question is embellished with fruit (a pomegranate and what appears to be a date) and spices represented by yellowish and ocher colored dots.
“Impossible not to think of pizza, born as a poor dish in southern Italy, which has now conquered the world and is served even in starred restaurants”, commented the director of the Pompeii site, the German Gabriel Zuchtriegel.
Placed on an elegant silver tray, it is surrounded by a cup of red wine, a garland of yellow arbutus as well as pomegranates and dates. According to archaeologists, this type of representation, known in ancient times under the Greek name of “xenia”, is inspired by the “presents of hospitality” which were offered to guests by virtue of a Greek tradition dating back to the period from the 3rd to 1st century BC.
The fresco was discovered in the atrium of a house adjacent to a bakery, in an area that had already been excavated from 1888 to 1891 and where research resumed in January. “Pompeii never ceases to dazzle us, it is a setting that always reveals new treasures,” reacted the Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano.
Pompeii, the second most visited tourist site in Italy after the Colosseum in Rome, covers a total area of around 22 hectares, of which a third is still buried under the ashes.