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

propatulo) mentioned by Varro as a place where Romans used to eat in summer may have been a
tradition that was eventually articulated in the form of these outdoor masonry couches. 271
Type DB, "Dining Benches"
This type is a simple bench that seated people for a meal, either in a house or (more
frequently) a diner. 272 The best example (not in the sample) is the open-air tavern at II.4.7 (3)
where three sets of masonry benches, two around masonry tables, served customers in the same
room as a larger masonry triclinium (Fig. 2.48; see also Fig. 2.46 for benches in I.6.2 (16)). 273 The
basic form is a solid masonry bench 0.30-0.60 m. wide (Figs. 2.44, 2.49), or masonry supports of
comparable width that supported wooden bench tops set across them; wooden bench tops are
reconstructed in IX.2.25 (a). Benches in the corners of houses or attached to masonry dining-
couches may have served as eating places for slaves and children. 274 The Latin term for bench,
subsellium, appears once in the literary context of dining, as the location where slaves ate. 275
Degrees of confidence in dining room identification
This typology attributes functions to rooms, so it is prudent to assign degrees of
confidence to their identifications. Degrees of confidence specify the degree to which dining
could have taken place in a given room. Any of these rooms, especially dining-halls and dinettes,
may have had multiple uses. See Fig. 5.1 for a summary of these codes.
A secure identification requires actual couch remains, the presence of niches in walls for
couches, or strong mosaic paving evidence (a 'T' or 'U' shape where plain or no mosaic is left
underneath the hypothetical couch positions). No special qualifying code accompanies the room
number or letter on the building plans or in the Gazetteer.
A probable identification requires two out of three more circumstantial pieces of
evidence: 1) a central mosaic emblema suggesting couch placement, 2) a prominent primary
aspect onto an open space, and 3) evidence for decorated walls and flooring. A qualifying code
of "•" accompanies the room number or letter.
A possible identification requires at least one of the three circumstantial pieces of
evidence listed above. A qualifying code of "◊" accompanies the room number or letter.
271 Soprano 1950, 288, referring to Var. Vita Populi Romani frg. 29 (Non. p. 83M); see p. 65, n. 40.
272 Examples from the study sample include: IX.1.12 (l) and IX.2.15-16 (q), houses; I.6.2 (16), a house or
dining area for rent; I.8.15-16 (4), IX.2.25 (a) and perhaps I.9.11 (3), all diners.
273 See Parslow 1989.
274 The benches attached to the masonry couches of I.6.2 (16) are assumed to be for "children or other
inferior persons" by Dunbabin 1991, 123; likewise the seats attached to the masonry couches of IX.5.11 (n)
are taken to be for children by Mau 1908, 264.
275 Pl. Capt. 471; likewise, Col. 11.1.19 presumes that farm workers do not recline for a meal except on
holidays (see chapter one, p. 52, n. 245 and p. 31, n. 126, respectively); see also D. C. 59.29.5.
115