A serving of giraffe legs with a side order of spicy sea urchin: the diet of 'chav' Romans in Pompeii revealed.

Archaeologists led by the University of Cincinnati said the discoveries of exotic meats prove the richness, variety and range of a non-elite diet. The international team spent more than a decade analysing the homes, shops and businesses of a non-elite district in Pompeii. Inexpensive foods such as grains, fruits, nuts, olives, local fish, small cuts of meat and eggs were also found in latrines and drains in the area.

Lower- and middle-class Romans living in Pompeii feasted on exotic meats and spicy seafood before the city was struck by a devastating volcanic eruption in 79 AD. Archaeologists have disproved popular preconceptions that the rich alone dined on imported delicacies, including flamingo, while the poor survived on gruel; instead, all classes enjoyed a rich and varied diet. The researchers discovered sea urchin and the butchered leg of a giraffe among less exotic foods like grain and eggs in a poorer area of the ruined city. Steven Ellis, an associate professor of classics at the University of Cincinnati, led the search through drains and latrines of a non-elite area of Pompeii to find bones and food deposits and build a picture of lower- and middle-class Romans' eating habits. A rare kiln is pictured right. What did Pompeians eat? Inexpensive and widely available foods such as grains, fruits, nuts, olives, lentils, local fish, and chicken eggs were found in drains and latrines in a relatively poor area of Pompeii, along with small cuts of meat and salted fish from Spain. A drain from a central property in the district revealed a rich variety of foods and imports from outside Italy, such as shellfish, sea urchin, and even delicacies including a butchered giraffe leg joint. Archaeologists said their finds demonstrate the richness, variety, and range of a non-elite diet, as well as long-distance trade in exotic and wild animals at the time. The international team spent more than a decade analysing the homes, shops, and businesses of a lower- to middle-class district in the Roman city, where earlier buildings date back to the 6th century. The area covers 10 separate building plots and a total of 20 shop fronts, most of which served food and drink. Archaeologists examined waste in drains as well as ancient latrines and cesspits to uncover charred food waste from kitchens, including fully processed foods like grain, as well as human waste. Steven Ellis, an associate professor of classics at the University of Cincinnati, said, "The material from the drains revealed a range and quantity of materials that suggest a clear socio-economic distinction between the activities and consumption habits of each property, which were otherwise indistinguishable as hospitality businesses." Inexpensive and widely available foods such as grains, fruits, nuts, olives, lentils, local fish and chicken eggs were found, along with small cuts of meat and salted fish from Spain. Archaeologists have disproved views that rich Romans dined on exported delicacies while the poor survived on gruel, revealing that all classes of Pompeians had a rich and varied diet. An inn with holes that held food and wine, the thermopolium of Lucius Vetutius Placidus, was located in another area of the city. A drain from a central property revealed a rich variety of foods as well as imports from outside Italy, such as shellfish, sea urchin and even delicacies including the butchered leg joint of a giraffe. "That the bone represents the height of exotic food is underscored by the fact that this is thought to be the only giraffe bone ever recorded from an archaeological excavation in Roman Italy," Professor Ellis said. "How part of an animal, butchered, came to be a kitchen scrap in a seemingly standard Pompeian restaurant not only speaks to long-distance trade in exotic and wild animals, but also to the richness, variety, and range of a non-elite diet," Professor Ellis said. Deposits discovered also included imported spices from as far away as Indonesia, highlighting the incredible reach of the Romans. "The traditional vision of some mass of hapless lemmings, scrounging for whatever they can pinch from the side of a street, or huddled around a bowl of gruel, needs to be replaced by a higher fare and standard of living, at least for the urbanites in Pompeii," Professor Ellis said. While inexpensive food such as grains, fruit, nuts, and eggs were found, the archaeologists also uncovered rich foods including sea urchin and even the leg of a giraffe, which was found in the drain of a property in a relatively poor part of the Roman city. One of the deposits dates to the fourth century and is rare, since few other deposits survived the early stage in the development of Pompeii. Professor Ellis and his international team aim to reveal the structural and social relationships over time between working-class Pompeian households, as well as to work out the role that the middle classes played in shaping the city. "However, one of the larger datasets and themes of our research has been diet and the infrastructure of food consumption and food ways," he added. The research will be presented at the joint annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and the American Philological Association (APA) in Chicago this weekend. New findings suggest commoners in ancient Pompeii ate a varied diet, and wealthier residents sometimes even ate giraffe. Food remains recovered from Pompeii's drains reveal that middle- and lower-class residents consumed inexpensive but nutritious foods, while slightly wealthier citizens enjoyed delicacies. These results contradict the belief that the Roman elite dined on exotic fare while poor Romans subsisted on birdseed.