4 ms·

Fun fact: we know the Vesuvius eruption, whatever the date, was on a Wednesday. How? Because we found a bread called Panis Quadratus that was only baked on Wedn

by jmyeet 2y ago

Fun fact: we know the Vesuvius eruption, whatever the date, was on a Wednesday. How? Because we found a bread called Panis Quadratus that was only baked on Wednesdays [1]. Pompeii (and Herculaneum) are endlessly fascinating and about a third of Pompeii remains underground and hasn't been examinted yet. [1]: https://www.visitnaples.eu/en/neapolitanity/flavours-of-naples/the-2000-year-old-bread-found-at-pompeii-excavations https://www.visitnaples.eu/en/neapolitanity/flavours-of-napl...

zachrip 2y ago
What if it was from the day prior?
- sourpunchicle 2y ago
  then it'd be stale
  - db48x 2y ago
    It _was_ stale when they found it.
- KZerda 2y ago
  The bread was found in the oven of one of the bakeries[1]. It wouldn't be in the oven if the bread was from the day before. [1] https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230406-arculata-the-bread-that-survived-pompeii https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230406-arculata-the-bre...
  - davidw 2y ago
    Now I'm envisioning a discount rack like my local Albertson's has, in Pompeii. "Panis Quadratis - L % off!"
ithkuil 2y ago
I'm confused. Rome didn't have a 7 day week until Constantine introduced it in 321 CE Rome used an 8 day cycle called "nundinal cycle". (And yes the name of the 8 day cycle contains the root of the number 9, novem, because Romans of course also invented off-by-one errors) Days were named with letters from A to H. What does it mean that the Panis Quadratus was baked on a Wednesday? That sparked my curiosity and I tried to find more accounts of this alleged ritual of baking specific kinds of breads on specific days of the week but I couldn't find much. It seems that somebody wrote a piece about panem quadratus on Wednesday and a few other types of breads and that's got copy-pasted around including some touristic website from Naples. I call bullshit, but I may be wrong. Does anybody know more about it?

by jmyeet 2y ago

zachrip 2y ago

What if it was from the day prior?

sourpunchicle 2y ago
then it'd be stale
- db48x 2y ago
  It _was_ stale when they found it.
KZerda 2y ago
The bread was found in the oven of one of the bakeries[1]. It wouldn't be in the oven if the bread was from the day before. [1] https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230406-arculata-the-bread-that-survived-pompeii https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230406-arculata-the-bre...
- davidw 2y ago
  Now I'm envisioning a discount rack like my local Albertson's has, in Pompeii. "Panis Quadratis - L % off!"

ithkuil 2y ago

I'm confused. Rome didn't have a 7 day week until Constantine introduced it in 321 CE Rome used an 8 day cycle called "nundinal cycle". (And yes the name of the 8 day cycle contains the root of the number 9, novem, because Romans of course also invented off-by-one errors) Days were named with letters from A to H. What does it mean that the Panis Quadratus was baked on a Wednesday? That sparked my curiosity and I tried to find more accounts of this alleged ritual of baking specific kinds of breads on specific days of the week but I couldn't find much. It seems that somebody wrote a piece about panem quadratus on Wednesday and a few other types of breads and that's got copy-pasted around including some touristic website from Naples. I call bullshit, but I may be wrong. Does anybody know more about it?