..researchers were excavating the site earlier this year when they ran across a fresco depicting a silver platter laden with wine, fruit — and a flat, round piece of dough with toppings that looked remarkably like a pizza.
No paywall - gifting this article.
Looks a bit like a pita bread pizza for one. : ) Fascinating - but then all of Pompeii is fascinating.
My comments are along the lines of "people always want to point to some ancient food and say this is where it started" but in reality, we are impressing a modern definition to something that is nothing like what we know.
Flatbreads with toppings have been around from back before Pompeii. Are they "pizza", maybe in some respects, but not in the strict definition of Neapolitan pizza, or in most definitions.
Same with lots of things, beer in Egypt would not be recognizable (nor would any beer before the 800's), same with wine in Roman times, Scotch before the 1700's, many foods, the hallmarks that we define a food or drink by, just do not apply that far back.
I was more impressed by the beautiful fresco than any remote connection to modern pizza.
Yay, another reason to revisit Pompeii and stay again at the Hotel Forum Pompeii--I loved how their breakfasts included both kinds of sfogliatelle.
I am reminded a bit of the gorgeous multicolor reliefs that I saw in Luxor, some of which depict a food offering to the gods that looks like a flattened sphere with a hole in the middle. My Egyptian guide claimed they were an ancient form of doughnuts, but they seemed like bagels to me. I guess we see old things with new eyes?
Same with lots of things, beer in Egypt would not be recognizable
There are beers today that are barley recognizable!
