Ancient Romans needing a quick bite often trimmed on fried songbirds, new research suggests. A researcher working on the island of Mallorca found bones of song -witurne pushes inside a trash near the ruins of an ancient fast food joint.
The study, published in May in the International Journal on Osteoarchaeologysuggests that pushes were often sold and consumed in Roman cities. This challenges the long belief that these small, stained birds were delicious reserved for elite banquets. What’s more, the findings offer a fresh understanding of the lively street food culture of the Roman Empire.
“Based on local culinary traditions here in Mallorca – where a song pushes (Sylvia) There are still sometimes consumed – I can say in personal experience that their taste is more like small game birds as a quail than a chicken, “Alejandro Valenzuela, the author of the study and researcher at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies in Mallorca, Spain, Spain, told Live science in email.
Valenzuela analyzed a collection of discarded animal bones discovered in the ancient city of Pollentia, located Near the modern city of Alcúdia in northern Mallorca. After the Roman Empire Conquered The Balearic Islands – Mallorca and Menorca – in 123 BC, it strategically built this city on the isthmus between two large bays. At the same time, Pollentia was one of the most active Roman ports in the area, according to Valenzuela’s report.
Archaeological excavations of the ruins of Polentia discovered a forum, temples, homes, theater, cemeteries and tabernacles – small road shops that sold goods, drinks and cheap meals. In the late 1990s, researchers excavated one of these buildings, called “Room Z”, and found a central sewer, which emptied into a cessation located on the porch in front of the taberne. This about 4-foot wide (1-meter wide) 13-foot-deep (4-meter-deep) cavity contained ceramic fragments that indicated that it was excavated about 10 BC as well as materials associated with food waste.
The animal remains in the cavity included multiple species of mammals, fish and birds, which were probably prepared, cooked, and consumed in or around the taberne. Valenzuela analyzed and taxonomically identified these remains, finding five different species of birds: common cranes, domestic birds such as chicken, pigeons, thunder and other thunderous songbirds. Thruses were most general with 165 identified samples.
Then, Valenzuela noticed something wonderful. The ensemble of remains included numerous skulls, breasts, and distal bones of the wings and legs, but very few bones from the most fleshy parts of birds, such as the upper wing, lower wing, thigh and upper chest.
The most likely explanation for this is that these bones were discarded by kitchen workers during meat, Valenzuela explains in the study. The few meat bones found in the pit also support this hypothesis, as they showed damage to a meal.
“This evidence suggests that pushes have been widely consumed, forming part of the daily diet and urban food economy,” Valenzuela writes.
Despite their abundance, ancient Roman literature typically portrays pushes as a luxurious food reserved for the upper steps of society, according to the study. In Plutarch’s biography of the Roman General Lucullus, for example, he describes the practice of fatty pushes for elite banquets. Valenzuela’s findings, however, suggest that this dish was not as exclusive as the literature seems. In fact, it seems that these birds were the basis of street food culture in Roman era Mallorca.
Determining if this was true in other parts of the Roman Empire would require further research. Valenzuela states that explore the role of other songbirds in ancient Roman cities could understand how they integrated seasonal resources into their food systems.
“Ultimately, this research emphasizes the need to bypass elite central stories and consider the various ways as food practices made the living experiences of ancient urban communities,” Valenzuela concludes.
