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

were perhaps used by the staff during summer. 126 A possibly analogous situation exists in
I.4.5+25: court (21) is surrounded by small living areas, and contains both a brazier and remains
of a bed or couch (Fig. 5.10). The court, while directly connected to the stables of the house at
entrance #28, contains some fine decoration, and was probably not for exclusive use of the
household staff.
Clearly, larger buildings have more and larger dining areas than smaller buildings.
However, dining does not take up proportionally more space. Table 3.4 demonstrates a
remarkable consistency in the percentage of the number of rooms and ground area dedicated to
dining areas. On average, 10% of spaces and ground area is reserved for dining, regardless of the
size of the building (in buildings with a substantial residential component). 127
Building type Average
total #
spaces
Average
total
ground
area
Average
total #
dining
areas
Average
total area,
dining
areas
Average #
of dining
areas, as %
of total
(Work)shop-house 10.9 196.6 m 2 1.1 17.7 m 2 10.1% 9.0%
Casa piccola 12.9 198.2 m 2 1.1 19.7 m 2 8.5% 9.9%
145
Avg. area
of dining
areas, as %
of total
Casa media 20.0 426.8 m 2 2.1 45.6 m 2 10.5% 10.7%
Casa grande 48.8 1476.4 m 2 5.2 151.1 m 2 10.7% 10.2%
Table 3.4: Comparison of average total number and ground area of dining areas. Percentages
(two columns at far right) remain constant across houses and (work)shop-houses of all sizes.
There is a small increase in the percentage of space allotted for dining in larger buildings, but it is
outweighed by the overall consistency of the numbers. Why is there an apparent 'tithe' for dining
space? Any answer must be unrelated to the socio-economic status of households. Perhaps it is a
matter of time; perhaps there is some correspondence between the amount of space reserved for
an activity and the amount of time spent daily doing that activity. Ten percent of the day is
approximately two and one-half hours; this seems a reasonable average for time spent at dinner.
It is not the time spent eating that is important, but rather the time spent socializing over a meal.
Occupants of (work)shops, who had no separate dining space, may well have spent part of that
126 In an upstairs 'cenaculum' off the W side of the atrium were found several skeletons, the remains of a
bed/couch, and some serving and drinking apparatus. Upstairs apartments could catch cooling breezes
that could not reach kitchen/dining room (7) on the ground floor.
127 (Work)shops and lunch counters, which have no dining areas, cannot be included in this exercise.
Diners, whose relatively small size and commerce in serving food means that more space is dedicated for
dining in those buildings than in any other building type, are also excluded. Dining areas on average take
up 16.7% of the number of spaces and 12.0% of the ground area of diners. Dining areas on the upper floor
and in underground spaces are also not included because the assessment is based on total ground area.
Otherwise, all dining areas, whether 'secure', 'probable' or 'possible', were included in this summary.