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

Casa grande Larger buildings contain more distinct and more specialized storage spaces.
Small houses have one or two places for cooking and eating items, houses of medium size have
two to four, and the largest houses, four to eight. Suites of underground rooms in the case grandi
I.6.2, I.7.1 and I.10.4 appreciably increase their storage capacity. In the first two, separate
entrances led directly from the street to the cryptoportici, allowing the house to be re-stocked
without disturbing any household business at the main entrance -- this service would have been
invisible to invited guests. Rooms underneath the bath suite in I.10.4 contained a plethora of
storage chests which included a large silver table service. I.7.1 appropriates an entire street as its
own private roofed alley that leads to its cryptoporticus. I.4.5 and I.10.4 also have secondary
entrances to stable yards where materials can be off-loaded and distributed to appropriate parts
of the house; remains of carts were found in both courts, and a pile of amphorae choked stable
yard (34) in I.10.4. 182 On the ground floors of smaller case grandi, storage is concentrated around
atria and (peristyle) gardens. 183 On the ground floor of the largest houses, storage tends to be
removed from the primary centers of circulation, and is concentrated instead around the service
quarters that accompany the cooking areas of the house. 184
182 I.4.5 has a stable at entrance #28; I.10.4 has a stable at entrance #14.
183 I.7.1 has two large closets on the east side of the atrium with evidence for shelving, and a niche and
storeroom (15) off the northeast corner of the peristyle. In I.7.10-12 atrium (A'), there is a storage nook
underneath the stairs to the upper floor and a pile of items in the southwest corner. Three storerooms
surround atrium (A"): Rooms (13, 14) both contain storage vessels and table services; they are stored in
chests in (13) and shelving held the items in (14). Room (11) of the same house had speciality storage of
toilet and weaving implements. The narrow storeroom (18) was practically empty at the time of the
eruption, but numerous amphorae were still stacked in the northeast corner of garden (23).
184 In I.4.5, there is storage in rooms (22-24) and closet (31) around court (21), storage in (62, 63) near kitchen
(64) (which itself has a series of notches for shelving on one wall), and storerooms (39, m) near the bath suite
and kitchen (42). The valuables of this household may have been kept in two strongboxes that rested on a
low platform in the west ala (51) of atrium (47). 184 In I.10.4, cooking and serving implements are stored in
chests and loose around the walls of atrium (41), the residential center of the household slaves and
freedpersons. Rooms (37, 45) nearby also served for storage. For the main kitchen (52), fuel seems to have
been stored in room (54), where a large mass of organic material was found. Besides the already mentioned
storage areas under the bath suite and around the stableyard (34), two other rooms (10, 14) contained
collections of cooking and serving wares. These small rooms with narrow doorways were located off of the
north and east sides of the peristyle garden, well-placed to serve all six dining areas in the vicinity.
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