Bird

On the fringes of the Roman world, in the island town of Pollentia, archaeologists have excavated what could be the Roman Empire's oldest equivalent to a snack bar chicken wing. In a humble cesspit outside a first-century taberna, bones from hundreds of song thrushes — small, migratory birds — were discovered cooked, broken, and discarded. Since ancient times, songbirds such as thrushes were believed to be a luxury that only the aristocracy could afford. Roman writers such as Pliny the Elder, Varro, and Columella detail their breeding, fattening (usually on figs), and serving at banquets for the nobility. In these accounts, thrushes are swathed in gastronomic ritual — roasted, stuffed with spices, or accompanied by milk cakes — and sometimes