KITCHENS AND DINING ROOMS AT POMPEII ... - Get a Free Blog

Vitruvius stresses the need to make rooms as comfortable as possible while they are being used.
His prescriptions are based on the length of time and what time of day a given room would be
under the stare of the sun; both factors depend directly upon the season of the year.
The aspect of a dining room onto an open space such as an atrium or peristyle may have
been as important as the direction it faced in determining its seasonal role. In some early atrium
houses, two dining rooms flanked the tablinum at the back of the atrium. 233 The winter dining
room faced back onto the atrium, largely sheltered from inclement weather. The summer dining
room faced onto the hortus or peristyle at the back of the house through a broad doorway or
window. As the "canonical" atrium-peristyle house developed, dining rooms came to be placed
around the peristyle or viridarium, taking advantage of light and breezes, especially in the
summer. Because the largely enclosed atrium offered more protection against the weather than
did garden porticos, dining rooms that faced onto the atrium may have been designated for
winter use. 234 Dining rooms at either side of the tablinum that faced both ways could have been
used for the intervening seasons of spring and autumn; temporary shutters or doors could have
determined the aspect of the room depending on the weather. 235
An archaeological typology of dining areas
In a broad sense, a dining area is any place at all where people eat. There is a large
difference, however, between taking lunch alone on a chair in a random room, and eating
formally with guests in a dining room. The former is taking food solely for sustenance; the latter
is institutionalized and ritualized group consumption. The former is eating, and the latter is
dining, as Plutarch knew: "The Romans are fond of quoting a clever and gregarious man who
said, after eating alone, 'I have eaten, but not dined today,' implying that a dinner always needs
the company of friends for its seasonings". 236
Dining areas are identified by their architectural form, decoration, and sometimes
artifacts found within (see below, pp. 106-110). This typology sorts out dining areas based on
simple, measurable criteria: dimensions, proportions and dining furniture. Fig. 2.44 shows the
distribution of dining area dimensions (length and width) for the complete sample. Fig. 2.45
shows the same distribution, with the dining areas categorized according to the definitions that
follow below. The 'dining room' (as the archetype) is defined first; it is the basis for defining the
'dining hall' and 'dinette'. All of these contained wooden dining couches that no longer survive.
Permanent masonry dining furniture defines the 'outdoor dining area' and 'dining benches'. The
233 For example, rooms (34, 35) flanking the tablinum (33) in (VI.12.2); see Richardson 1983, 61-62, and rooms
(11, 12) flanking tablinum (8) in the Casa del Menandro (I.10.4); see Ling 1983.
234 See Vitr. 6.3.2 (see above, p. 101, n.222).
235 Richardson 1983, 62-64. See also Mau 1908, 266.
236 Plu. Moralia 69C (translation Gowers 1993, 279).
105