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

face directly onto a garden or peristyle through a wide door, or are located within a garden.
These were probably summer dining areas. 138 Seven of ten 'summer' dining areas have a
northward orientation, away from the warmest path of the sun in summertime, as per Vitruvius'
advice. 139 The third and largest group of dining areas falls somewhere in between, with a
variety of orientations, windows and doors. Light and air for the great majority (seventeen of
twenty-two) comes primarily from a node, and is supplemented by other sources (such as doors
onto corridors or other rooms). Lighting, temperature and air can be regulated simply by
opening and closing doors and shutters. This flexibility suggests use throughout the year. Most
(eighteen of twenty-two) are oriented southwards, so solar radiation was available, were it
desired; those oriented towards the north were automatically deprived of direct sunshine.
Most dining areas (except for 'winter' dining areas) have some sort of aspect onto an
atrium or garden. These views allowed the guests to enjoy painted garden walls, plantings, and
sometimes water fixtures or sculpture. 140 No pattern of favored views for particular couch
positions within the dining room can be detected; these dining areas face fairly square onto
gardens, and while each guest would have a slightly different view, no guest (e.g. a person in the
locus consularis) consistently has the best view. 141
Casa grande The construction history of gardens and peristyles largely determines the
environment and view of dining areas in large houses. Three of these (4, 7, 10) around the two
atria of I.7.10-12 are the remnants of dining areas that belonged to individual houses before they
were combined. Dining areas I.6.2 (5) and I.4.5+25 (53) are the only others located off of atria.
Dining areas are often placed around the atrium in smaller houses, but in the largest houses they
are almost always focused on gardens and peristyles behind the atria. This is clear in I.4.5+25,
I.7.1 and I.10.4, where seven, four and six dining areas respectively face fully onto large peristyle
gardens. 142 Important dining areas in the two other case grandi (I.6.2 (16), I.1.10-12 (17, 23)) also
concentrate their aspect upon large gardens. 143
138 'Summer' dining areas: I.6.4 (p) (before the earthquake of A.D. 62, it looked out over the expansive
garden to the S); I.6.15 (d); I.7.19 (e); I.8.4-6 (13); I.8.8-9 (11) (an outdoor dining area); I.8.17+11 (18); I.9.1-2
(14); I.9.5-7 (17); I.9.13 (j); I.10.7 (12) (an outdoor dining area).
139 Vitr. 6.4 (see above, chapter two, p. 104).
140 Four fountain sculptures were found in I.9.5-7 (j); sculpture in a garden shrine was visible to all dining
areas in I.10.7.
141 contra Bek 1983 (see above, chapter two, pp. 100-101).
142Three dining areas (I.7.1 (9), I.7.10-12 (23), I.10.4 (c)) are outdoor dining areas located in the center of a
garden.
143I.6.2, when it was joined with I.6.4 and a very large house before A.D. 62, had two spectacular dining
areas -- [22] in the cool underground near a bath suite and lit only by windows up to the garden, and I.6.4
(p), which faced fully south onto the garden from its elevated position, and towards the mountains in that
direction.
148