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

Casa grande These have more than twice as many dining areas on average as case medie,
and more than five times as many as case piccole. The number ranges from two to eight (Table
3.4). 121 Dining areas (mean 29.4 m 2 ) are on average thirty-four percent larger than those in case
medie and sixty-four percent larger than those in case piccole. The top tier of houses demonstrates
a dramatic increase in the number and size of dining areas; some dining halls are even larger than
an entire small house or (work)shop-house. 122 Dining areas are better identified in large houses -
- ten are securely identified, twelve are 'probable', and only six are 'possible'. 123 ' Dining rooms
are again the majority of dining area types (fourteen), but dining halls (eight) and outdoor dining
areas (four) are other significant types; the dinette, smallest of the types, appears but once, as
does the dining bench. Four of five houses contained an outdoor dining area. 124
Given the number of dining areas in large houses, it is reasonable to assume that they
had specialized uses. They could hold gatherings from the small to the very large in a variety of
settings. In grand houses where guests could enjoy differently sized and decorated dining areas,
the slaves also had a place to eat. Three houses appear to have an area set aside for meals of the
servile household staff. 125 In I.10.4, the small atrium house at entrances #16-17 and its
dependent rooms have long been considered the 'procurator's' quarters, i.e. residential slave
quarters (Figs. 5.162, 5.165). The atrium (41) contained a hearth, a bed or couch in one corner and
a table and chests filled with cooking, serving and eating wares. Similarly, atrium (A') in I.7.10-12
at entrance #10 seems a self-contained unit separated from the rest of the house by its status. Off
that atrium, room (7) has two couch niches and a masonry stove against one wall, a neat fit of
cooking and dining in the same room (Figs. 5.84-5.86). Upstairs rooms around the same atrium
121 This count for I.6.2, the Casa del Criptoportico, does not include underground room [22], which was
abandoned after A.D. 62, when a combination set of masonry dining couches and dining benches (counted
here as one dining area) was built. The Casa del Citarista (I.4.5+25) does not include court (21), in which
five feet for (bed/couch) furniture was found.
122 Notable are dining-halls (or perhaps basilicae) I.4.5+25 (19) (75.5 m 2 ), (35) (65.8 m 2 ) and I.10.4 (18) (93.8
m 2 ).
123 Secure identifications: I.6.2 (16), with masonry couches and benches; I.7.1 (9), an outdoor area with
wooden couches, (16), with couch niches and an emblema in the pavement; I.7.10-12 (7, 10) with couch
niches, (17) with niches, an emblema and remains of couches, and (23), outdoor masonry couches; I.10.4 (c),
an outdoor wooden couch and (18), with couch remains, a table and serving vessels. Probable identification:
I.4.5+25 (35) contained remains of (perhaps) dining couches; I.6.2 [22] had an emblema and bipartite floor
decoration; I.7.1 (18) had an emblema and a mosaic band in the pavement limiting the placement of couches;
I.7.10-12 (16) has an emblema and floor decoration marking couch positions; I.10.4 (11) has an emblema and
serving vessels and room (12) contained a single cup.
124 Only I.4.5+25 does not have an outdoor dining area recorded, although outdoor dining could easily have
been arranged in either of the large gardens (32) or (56).
125 See the Gazetteer entries for more detailed treatments of slave dining areas. Maiuri 1933 first identified
atrium (41) in I.10.4 as the 'procurator's quarters'. Maiuri NSc 1927, 38 and Maiuri 1954b, 459-460 suggested
that atrium (A') in I.7.10-12 was used by slaves or women.
144