Who said that fast food is a thoroughly modern invention? Not the archaeologists who uncovered a casual eating spot in the ruins of Pompeii, the city preserved by the historical eruption of Mt. Vesuvius millennia ago. As the Associated Press reported, excavators have found a thermopolium, which served hot food and drink from a counter that looks a wee bit like yesteryear’s salad bar. It’s hard to know what the offerings were on that fateful day in 79 A.D., but frescoes on the bar (advertising or an actual menu?) show chicken and duck. Bone fragments back up those offerings, and there are traces of snails and fava beans, probably all washed down with wine at this subterranean proto-Subway. Also in the ancient takeout emporia: depictions of a ferocious dog—perhaps meant to scare robbers—and human remains.
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