7 July 2017

Friday fold: marble in a thermopolium at Herculaneum

Posted by Callan Bentley

Thermopolia are basically the street food stalls of the ancient Roman world. They are distinctive because they have a counter/storefront that contains embedded enormous terra cotta vessels. The surface of the counter is often decorated with slabs of marble. Some of these marbles bear folded internal layering.

Here’s a fine example from Herculaneum, though there are many others at Pompeii.

Coin for scale — or is it to pay for a snack of some nice squid fritters???