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

to be specialized according to function (amphorae, table services, toilet articles or agricultural
tools) and according to who is using them (the free family, guests, or household staff). Cooking
and serving wares are often kept stored in cabinets, cupboards or shelves near atria and gardens,
whence they can easily be retrieved for use in the kitchen or the dining room. Few kitchens in
larger houses have evidence for shelving or hooks within the kitchen. I suggest that wares and
utensils were brought into the kitchen for that meal and returned after they had been cleaned.
The few collections found in situ on stoves were the result of the surprise of the eruption. Some
persons brought vessels to their stoves to prepare a meal during the course of the eruption, as if
the fall of ash would cease and the day continue, and they died as a result of their delay. 163
(Work)shops The small size of these properties requires that every room, including the
upper loft, includes some storage. Cooking, eating and storage were all proximate. In cases
where the evidence is available, cooking and eating wares are stored in a cupboard or chest in
one corner, in the space underneath the stairs to an upper loft, or in the upper loft itself. 164
Storage cupboards are also sometimes built into walls (Figs. 5.40-5.41, 5.78).
(Work)shop-houses Cooking implements were found stored most often in the immediate
vicinity of the cooking area itself. In four such areas, wares and vessels were in situ on stove
surfaces or next to stoves. 165 In two of the same (work)shop-houses, serving and eating vessels
were found stored in baskets or chests in the dining area. 166 In these cases, items were stored
primarily where they were used. Supplementary storage was provided by cupboards and chests
that stood along the walls of the atrium or entry court (the primary node of the building). 167 In a
few cases, separate small rooms were used for storage; these were usually located close to the
cooking area. 168
Commercial eating establishments Jars sunk into the front counter provided ready
storage of food and drink for sale. Small built shelves that step up from the counter against one
wall are sometimes found; thereupon goods for sale were placed in view of the customers (Figs.
5.139, 5.148). 169 In independent lunch counters there is additional storage of cooking and serving
163 Skeletons, and kitchen wares in situ on stoves were found in I.6.7, I.7.7, I.7.10-12, and I.10.7.
164 I.6.10: wares are stored in a cupboard or cabinet in (n); I.4.20-21: two dolia sunk in the floor underneath
the stairs; I.10.5-6: mixing bowls, plates and vases were stored in an arcuated niche underneath the stair to
the upper floor apartment at #5; I.6.3: vessels found far above the floor in (a) likely fell from the floor of the
loft above.
165 I.6.7 (m), I.7.5 (c), I.7.18 (e), I.9.9 (4).
166I.7.5 (d), I.7.18 (c).
167I.6.7, I.7.18, I.9.10, I.6.8-9.
168I.7.5 (b), I.7.16 (8)
169Shelves attached to the counters are found in I.8.8, I.9.4, I.9.11.
154