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

valuable commercial opportunities offered by frontage on a major avenue. 12 Maiuri's vision of a
low-ranking commercial class invading the city during the mid first century A.D. and gutting the
facades of once-noble houses with humble shops has been shown a fallacy. Wallace-Hadrill has
convincingly demonstrated that the urban elite, if not themselves thoroughly engaged in
commerce, were at least not segregated from the commercial activity of others. The elite and
merchants or craftsmen were mutually dependent in social, economic, and political terms. 13
(2) (Work)shop-houses 14
This category consists of buildings in which commercial, industrial and residential
activities are architecturally intertwined. 15 They may be defined either as (work)shops with a
clear residential component, or houses with a significant industrial or commercial component.
These properties have no standard architectural form, no limits on their size or number of rooms,
and have been described as 'irregular' or 'non canonical'. 16
(Work)shop-houses do have, however, two distinguishing features. First, a single
entrance serves both the (work)shop and house; this entrance is generally wide, like the
(work)shops of the preceding category. If the entrance is narrow, it opens directly into a node in
the form of a court or garden; (work)shop-houses rarely have fauces. 17 The form of the entrance
is a strong clue to the form and function of the building:
12 Only houses I.6.4, I.7.1, I.7.2-3 along these major streets do not have part of their width taken up by
(work)shops or eating establishments along the street; furthermore, the double entrance of I.7.2-3 puts in
doubt whether some small commercial activity did not take place at entrance #2.
13 Wallace-Hadrill 1994, 125-142, 175-186; Wallace-Hadrill 1991a. Recent work (Pirson 1994) has confirmed
that the (work)shops built into the facades of even the grandest houses of Pompeii such as the Insula
Arriana Polliana (VI.6) were planned into its second century B.C construction.
14 Examples of (work)shop-houses from the study sample include: I.6.7, I.6.8-9, I.7.5, I.7.16, I.7.18, I.8.10,
I.8.12, I.8.13, I.9.9, I.9.10, I.10.1. Two properties are nominally included in this category but are not included
in the statistical summary because they lack an identifiable residential component. I.8.19 (an officina
tinctoria)and I.9.15 are properties located underneath the peristyle space of large houses I.8.1-3 and I.9.1-2
respectively. Neither building has been completely excavated, and neither has shown any evidence for
cooking or eating facilities. These properties seem to have been used solely for manufacturing purposes, not
for habitation. Neither will be considered in any analyses in this chapter.
15 Wallace-Hadrill warns: "Modern boundaries of work versus residence, business versus leisure,
dissolve...in the Roman house. Any analysis that attempts to distinguish the residential units of Pompeii
from commercial or industrial ones must founder on this objection." I do not deny the interrelationship
between residential and non-residential activities in almost any building in Pompeii, but I do believe that in
most cases it is possible to distinguish architecturally between buildings dedicated primarily to residence,
and those significantly and publically dedicated to commerce or industry.
16 Pompei - L'Informatica 1988 lists these types of buildings in its gazetteer under the heading: "Abitazione
di tipo non codificato. Impianto commerciale a destinazione incerta."
17 The exception is the officina scriptoria at I.7.16, which possesses a fauces.
120