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

ca. 2.12 x 1.10 m., and the small 'child' couch 1.20 x 0.70 m. 251 The bronze frame found in a
dining room in the villa of Boscoreale, partially reconstructed, measures ca. 2.30 x 1.20 m (Fig.
2.40). 252 These dimensions fall close to the average couch measurements derived from couch
niches in dining rooms from the study sample (see below, Table 2.1). Fragments of a dining
couch (insufficient to reconstruct the dimensions) were found in a couch-niche in room (9) of the
Casa del Fabbro (I.10.7) (Fig. 5.170). 253 In lieu of whole couches, metal feet and couch
attachments can suggest the presence of dining furniture. Fragmentary fittings may, however,
also belong to sleeping couches, chairs, benches, or other sorts of furniture. 254
The most common indication of dining is the presence of niches, cuttings into the bases of
walls that aided in the placement of couches, sometimes even allowing couches to be fit in a room
which would otherwise have been too narrow. 255 They continue the plaster and decoration of
the rest of the wall, so as not to leave decorative gaps if the couches were ever removed from the
room. In cross-section, niches may be squared off or curved; often the imprint of the couch legs
or headboard is articulated (Figs. 2.41-2.42). Dining room (e) in the small Casa di Paccius
Alexander (Pompeii IX.1.7) has the relatively rare privilege of possessing niches for all three
couches (Figs. 1.27, 2.42). The niche for the lectus medius is squared-off with a slot to receive the
couch frame, the niche for the lectus imus curves gently into the wall from the top of the couch to
the floor, and the squared niche for the lectus summus preserves the position of the legs at either
end, as well as a slot for the headboard. The lectus medius niche is most commonly present, the
251 Maiuri 1958, 392 & 417-419 respectively. Measurements in his text do not match measurements taken
from the scale drawings of the Casa a Graticcio. Maiuri calls both upstairs rooms (2, 5) in that house biclinia.
The identification of these rooms for dining is not secure, but it is likely, considering that no other rooms in
the apartments are more suitable for dining. In addition, we might expect that poorer families with smaller
living quarters like these apartments would have smaller dining areas with couches of non-canonical
dimensions. Finally, Maiuri's suggestion that the different size couches in (5) reflect their use by individuals
of different ages is intriguing, but not verifiable.
252 Richter 1966, 106 & fig. 530; the couch is in the Staatliche Museum in Berlin. Another dining couch from
Pompeii in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples has been reconstructed to identical dimensions
(Collezioni 1989, 186-187, #97). See also Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli 1990, 68-79, 162-180, Figs. 118-149;
Engelmann 1904, Fig. 87.
253 A unique example of a dining couch in situ: Allison 1992b, 205, Elia NSc 1934, 286-287.
254 Couch fittings were found in I.4.5+25 (35); I.6.4 (c); I.6.8-9 (d); I.7.2-3 (c); I.7.10-12 (17); I.7.18 (c); I.9.13 (d);
I.10.4 (15, 18); I.10.7 (8). See the gazetteer for details.
255 Allison 1992b, 80-84 questions the assumption that niches (or recesses) consistently marked the position
of beds or couches. However, she does not take into account that the different position of each couch in a
triclinium arrangement requires niches of different shapes and sizes, even as the function of these niches
remains exactly the same. No niches identified for dining couches from the study sample (and listed in
Table 2.1 below) are invalidated by her arguments.
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