On Dec. 26, archeologists finished excavating a complete thermopolium — a Roman food counter — in the ancient city of Pompeii, which was buried in ash and stone when Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79.
“As well as being another insight into daily life at Pompeii, the possibilities for study of this Thermopolium are exceptional, because for the first time an area of this type has been excavated in its entirety, and it has been possible to carry out all the analyses that today’s technology permits,” said Massimo Osanna, the interim director general of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii,