CULTURE
Pizza-like dish found in ancient Italian fresco
June 28, 2023 - Archaeologists working in the ruins of Pompeii have discovered a fresco they believe depicts an ancient form of pizza.
Researchers excavating the Pompeii archaeological site in Italy, have uncovered a fresco (wall painting) which appears to show a pizza-like dish on a silver platter.
Dubbed the “proto-pizza”, the find may not include the customary ingredients of tomatoes and mozzarella cheese – instead pomegranate, dates, spices and perhaps an early type of pesto – but the round, doughy disc covered in toppings certainly looks like it could be a precursor to the modern-day pizza.
The discovery was made in Inula 10, Regio IX of the Pompeii dig site – the city having been famously destroyed in 79AD, when Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered it in volcanic ash and pumice.
The fresco was uncovered in the remains of an atrium of a house that was connected to a bakery. The painting is a still life of a silver platter bearing wine, fruits, nuts... and the proto-pizza!