Originally published at: Is that an ancient pizza depicted in this 2,000-year-old painting? | Boing Boing
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The Romans, along with pretty much every other culture, had a variety of “flatish bread with sauce and toppings” dishes, which is the basic formula for pizza. Turns out it’s a pretty convenient form factor for meals, and can be baked in a pretty standard earthen oven.
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I don’t think many people were seriously claiming it was a Neapolitan pizza.
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Because it’s
The origin story of the, “is pineapple okay on pizza” debate. 
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is instead believed to be a focaccia covered with fruit, including pomegranate and possibly dates
So… it is a pizza? A focaccia with stuff on it is definitely a “pizza,” even if it’s sweet (especially given how some of the earliest written recipes for something called “pizza” were sweet). Sure, the terminology is hugely complicated - what a “pizza” is in modern Italian is hugely varied (including “pizza dolce” which can basically just be a cake or pie), a lot of regional “pizzas” have other names, and the familiar Neapolitan pizza and its varied descendants are quite modern. Etymologically, “pizza” just seems to go back to words meaning “bread with stuff on it,” and it’s only become more complicated in the last couple millennia.
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As a Polish friend said to me “It doesn’t look like it has sauerkraut or pickles on it, so it’s not pizza.”
She’s quite obviously insane.
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Pizza-the chili of flatbreads!
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Whatever it is, it looks tasty.
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It’s almost like foods develop gradually over time, and trying to decide the precise moment they qualify as the modern type is always random semantics. I would be curious if this was served hot though.
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Hot, cold, it’s another circular argument.
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And it totally is. Just had pineapple, black olive, feta pizza tonight, and it was delicious.
[I am a pizza heretic and I *own* it, dammit!]
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Given that pineapples are clearly depicted in the fresco, 
I think it’s time that 
, 
and Hawaii climb down off their high horses and acknowledge that we here in 
are only reviving what was clearly a popular ancient topping. 
And I see your accusation of “tendentious misinterpretation of fragmentary archeological indications” and raise you one “Rome knew how to get to Brazil because they chased the Carthaginians there, who knew about it from the Phoenicians, so therefore Romans had pineapples”. 
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Who knew pineapples could be that tiny. 
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Clearly an early cultivar.
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If it doesn’t have tomato sauce it isn’t a pizza. You can call it a pizza if you like but it is not.
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focaccia covered with fruit, including pomegranate and possibly dates, finished with spices or a type of pesto
That sounds pretty good though.
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Ancient bird:
So yes, it is¹, but still it isn’t.
¹: Lest all the paleontologists jump on me: I know that’s not the right lineage.
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Never had a pizza bianca before, I take it? Voglio bene le pizze così!
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The paleontologist that you see isn’t going to jump on you. It will be the two from the sides, that you never knew were there.
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