12 - Ancient History - Pompeii and Herculaneum: Food

Agriculture was the economic backbone of the Republican aristocracy: so much has long seemed beyond question. Landownership was safe, conferred prestige, and associated its possessors with the moral foundations of Roman greatness.1 While members of the senatorial...

A warm October sun shines on the vines and fruit trees Romans, who spread the grape gospel throughout Europe. standing in neat rows in a backyard orchard in Pompeii. When I’d heard stories...

The remains of carbonized plants recovered from sites destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 furnish valuable historical evidence on many staple food plants used by the ancient Campanians of the 1st century A.D. Carbonized seeds, grains,...

The shop-houses of the humble people who made up a large part of the population at Pompeii have been little noticed, over-shadowed as they are by the more aristocratic and much studied atrium-peristyle houses. It is now generally recognized that Pompeii was a...

Recent excavations have uncovered a l-arge vineyard within the city walls of ancient Pompeii ( 1w). For over 200 years, the large city block [region...

"..both ground surfaces and graves produced botanical results. Those from the ground surfaces consisted mainly of fruit offering residues (especially fig and grape) ..."

...the Stags in Herculaneum shows two erotes fishing beside a small stream . (Inset) The black-and-white mosaic floor in the home of Aulus Umbricius Scaurus depicts small one-handled vessels called urcei , each bearing a label advertising fish sauces .

CONTENTS I. Introduction 145 II. Vital statistics 151 III. Sizes and distribution 156 IV. Residential and non-residential space 164 V. Atria and peristyles 166 VI. Decoration 170 (a) The diffusion of decoration 173...

...thé largeé tàtari in Pompeii , looking north toward Vesuvius. Stones show the locations of cement casts of grapevine roots . A VINEYARD AT POMPEII The discovery of a vineyard has solved the mystery of what the Foro Boario really was and gives us a glimpse of the natural beauty within...

...historical position, the women of the city have been largely ignored. They are overlooked in studies ofPompeii as well as in histories of women in antiquity. But archaeology provides abundant evidence about the female members of society . It is an important source...

No fries, but how about a side of giraffe leg? Surprising discoveries result from an excavation site in the buried city of Pompeii.

The commoners of the ancient city of Pompeii may have eaten a varied diet, with the wealthier even dining on giraffe, new research suggests.

"I am looking at pots and pans and how houses actually functioned," said archaeologist Penelope Allison of the University of Leicester, in the United Kingdom. "I am interested in revealing the utilitarian side of life rather than its glamorous side, in slaves and servants and how they lived side by side with their masters." ... Allison's complete findings are published in a new book, "The Insula of the Menander at Pompeii Volume III" (Oxford University Press, 2007).