Pizza at Pompeii? A discovery of ancient flatbread beneath the ashes. From the article:

On 27 June, the Archaeological Park of Pompeii announced that a new fresco depicting a focaccia (an Italian flatbread) had been discovered. In recent years, the site has begun excavating previously unexplored areas of the once bustling town that was buried during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.

In the announcement, director Gabriel Zuchtriegel described a beautifully preserved still-life fresco depicting a cup of wine next to a focaccia on a silver tray holding various fruits and what looks like moretum, a Roman herb-and-cheese spread….

As a classical archaeologist who researches and recreates the breads and pastries of ancient Rome, I immediately knew that the image depicted in the unearthed fresco was a very important discovery. For one thing, it’s the first pictorial representation of food placed atop a circular flatbread in a Roman setting, corroborating literary references, such as the Aeneid, to this practice in ancient Roman dining.

The fresco also helps to identify a flatbread depicted in a previously known Pompeii fresco, the “bread distribution” fresco from the tablinum of the Casa del Panettiere(House of the Baker), and the two bread images in tandem provide critical information regarding how this type of bread was shaped by hand, and why it took the form it did….

In the 1st Century AD, Roman author and philosopher Pliny the Elder wrote in Historia Naturalis that Romans once made offerings of adorea. According to Roman soldier and senator, Cato the Elder, the word was synonymous with “glory”. And the late 4th- and early 5th-Century grammarian, Servius, tells us that adorea cakes (ie flatbreads) are made of emmer (hulled) wheat, honey and oil and are suitable for offerings.

For the announcement from the Archaeological Park, see here.