At the corner between the Vicolo dei Balconi and the Casa delle Nozze d’Argento, in that of Pompei, imagine one bottega of grocery stores, which also has a ready-to-eat market: a beautiful shop, with a large L-shaped counter richly decorated with frescoes. And then, here and there, earthenware pots with the remains of delicious dishes: from kid to snails. All miraculously intact since that 24 October 79 AD, when the eruption of Vesuvius covered all of Pompeii.
But this Thermopolium, thanks to the pyroplastic material, it was as if sealed, which allowed an incredible preservation of this shop more than two thousand years ago.
Identified and partially discovered in 2019, only now, after long excavations, which never stopped even during the lockdown, has it appeared in all its splendor, complete with still vivid colors, decorations and marble floor.
The thermopolies, where drinks and hot food were served, as the name of Greek origin indicates, preserved in large dolia (jars) embedded in the masonry counter, were very common in the Roman world, where it was customary to consume the prandium (the meal) outside home. In Pompeii alone there are about eighty, but none so intact, with such refined decorations, splendid colors and intact designs.
The discovery is important also for everything that can be deduced: we have seen, for example, that in the same dish there were mammals, birds, fish and snails in a sort of paella antelitteram and that beans were put in the wine to whiten it a little and at the same time to correct the taste.
The idea, pandemic permitting, is open to visits the Thermopolium, formerly in spring, for Easter, setting up a path that also passes by the construction site of the house of the Silver Wedding, a wonder closed to the public for decades.
On Sunday 27 December, at 9 pm, the documentary will be broadcast on Rai 2 Pompeii latest discovery, in which the images of the Thermopolium which has just come back to light will be shown to the general public for the first time.
(Photo Archaeological Park of Pompeii Luigi Spina)
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