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

"The symbolic contrast between "noble" patronage and "sordid" trade was made
visible even in the nature of the openings that linked the house to the street
outside: the narrow opening, artificially emphasized by the long corridor of the
fauces, that leads to the atrium is designed to exclude and to mark the privilege
of one who approaches for dignified purposes; whereas the wide opening of the
taberna throws open the space inside and vulgarly displays its contents,
promiscuously accessible except when the shutters are drawn against thieves at
night." 18
Entrances broadcast critical information that allowed people to distinguish shops that could be
entered freely from houses that required invitation. A link between entrance type and building
category is confirmed by houses that were transformed into (work)shop-houses in their last
period of use. The original fauces and side room(s) of both I.6.7 (converted into a fullonica) and
I.6.8-9 (converted probably into a diner) were completely removed, in favor of open shop
frontages along the street. Both buildings retained the atrium and colonnaded garden that help
identify their original role as houses.
A second feature of (work)shop-houses is that (like houses) some part of their interior
space is left open to the sky. Simple (work)shops have no interior open space. The larger size of
these buildings doubtless required an additional lighting source for rooms far from the street.
(Work)shop-houses do not fall into a neat statistical group; the very terms of their
definition ensure that they do not conform to architectural or dimensional templates (Table 3.2,
Figs. 2.2, 3.1). For the record, they average 196.6 m 2 (range 85.4-356.9 m 2 ), and 10.9 spaces (range
6-18). There are four smaller examples (mean 115.9 m 2 ) whose domestic components are more
obvious than their commercial functions. 19 Nearly twice as large on average (mean 228.6 m 2 ) are
three officinae that all have identifiable cooking spaces and sleeping quarters. 20 Of the three
largest (mean 301.7 m 2 ), two were converted from medium-sized houses. 21 (Work)shop-houses
had an estimated population of 3-8 persons (see above, n. 11). There is little pattern to their
distribution; I.6.7, I.6.8-9 and I.7.5 front the Via dell'Abbondanza, and there is a small commercial
concentration at the northeast corner of insula I.10 (I.7.16, I.7.18, I.10.1). The remainder line minor
streets in insulae I.8-9.
18 Wallace-Hadrill 1994, 118, drawing upon the work of Laurence 1994, esp. 88-121.
19 I.7.5, I.7.18, I.9.9, I.10.1. Finds of bowls of pigments in I.9.9 suggest that this was an officina pigmentaria,
producing paints for scriptores such as those headquartered at I.7.16.
20 I.7.16 is an officina scriptoria, I.8.10 was an officina vasaria before the A.D. 62 earthquake, and I.8.13 is an
officina of uncertain production. All three are centered on large gardens with porticos located immediately
inside the entrance to the property.
21 I.6.7 and I.6.8-9. The third largest (work)shop-house, I.9.10, expanded between A.D. 62-79, adding a
formal dining-room and service wing with kitchen and latrine (Berry 1993, Figs. 5-7).
121