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

as space for hire by customers of the eating establishment. 108 The other three most securely
identified dining areas appear in buildings with a clear and significant residential component. 109
Commercial eating establishments Lunch-counters by definition do not have distinct
dining areas where customers recline; they are not included in any of the following discussions.
Of the diners, only I.8.15-16 has securely identified dining areas -- room (4) with a set of three
masonry benches, and room (6) with a niche for a dining couch. 110 Dining areas are quite small,
15.9 m 2 on average. Most are dining rooms; two are dining halls, two have dining benches, and
none include masonry dining couches, which are often taken as the most obvious sign of a
commercial eating establishment (see chapter one, pp. 35-37). 111 For the diners in this sample,
wooden couches, tables and chairs were provided for customers instead of masonry couches. 112
Houses with or without (work)shops
Casa piccola Nearly all small houses have a single dining area on the ground floor. Two
dining areas are securely identified; four others are probably for dining, and five are possible. 113
Most are dining rooms (five) or dinettes (four). On average, they are hardly larger (17.9 m 2 ) than
dining areas in (work)shop-houses, which is not surprising given the comparable overall size of
the two building categories.
108 See the gazetteer entry on I.6.8-9 for a discussion of the use and life of the building. I.6.8-9, I.7.18, and
I.10.1 each have a dining area on the ground floor, and one on an upper floor.
109 I.7.5 (b) has a couch niche; I.7.18 (c) has a floor emblema and remains of a couch, stool and serving wares;
I.9.10 (11) no longer has any decoration.
110 I.6.8-9, DH•(d) contained four bronze feet and 2 runners for a couch, I.7.13-14, DR•(4) a couch niche, but
both rooms are in the traditionally-identified position for a tablinum, and I cannot be positive that the
couches were used for dining. These rooms were likely multi-purpose spaces. I.8.8 (2) has an opus sectile
emblema in its pavement. Diners I.4.11, I.9.4 and I.9.11 had possible dining areas -- room (3) in the latter
contains benches, but until the room has been completely excavated, it is not possible to know whether the
benches were for seating customers, or whether they were cooking surfaces.
111 It has been suggested that loggia (16) of the Casa del Criptoportico, I.6.2, was converted into a public
dining establishment after A.D. 62., on the basis of a set of masonry dining couches, benches and a nearby
stove. While a change in the character of that house cannot be denied, its transformation from a house to a
house with a diner cannot, in the end, be proved. See the Gazetteer entry.
112 Masonry couches appear in greater abundance in the eastern quarter of the city near the entertainment
center of the amphitheater; greater urban space is devoted there to open gardens in which the masonry
couches are found. Examples include: I.11.16, I.20.1, I.21.3, II.2.2, II.3.9, II.4, II.6.2, II.6.5, II.9.6 (See
Jashemski 1979,
113 I.8.18 (6) and I.9.8 (9) both have couch niches; the latter room also contained a table and serving vessels.
I.4.9 (m) has an emblema, and pilasters painted on the walls divide the room into a service area at the front
('anticamera') and a dining area at the back ('sala'). I.7.2-3 (c) has an emblema in its pavement; I.4.1-3 (g) and
I.8.14 (6) are also probable dining areas. I.4.22 (d, l), I.10.2-3 (6) and I.10.18 (3, 11) are possible dining areas.
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