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

The relationship of ritual to cooking and dining areas
A close connection between ritual practices that insure the continued well-being of the
household and culinary practices that ensure its physical survival cannot be denied. 185 How was
ritual physically linked to the activities of cooking and eating? The location, decoration and
attributes of domestic shrines have been well-documented for most buildings by Boyce, Orr and
Fröhlich. 186 It remains to assess the spatial (and potentially symbolic) relationships between
these points of worship and the places where food was prepared and consumed.
(Work)shops There does not seem to be a close relationship between places of cult, and
cooking or dining areas in (work)shops from this sample (there is a general lack of good
evidence). 187 However, close physical relationships between ritual and food did exist in some
(work)shops, as the following examples drawn from elsewhere at Pompeii demonstrate.
The (work)shop at IX.1.27 (Fig. 2.11) is the only known one-room (work)shop that
contains its own built masonry stove. The stove, of a common arched type found everywhere at
Pompeii, was a late addition during the property's last replastering. Above the stove is an
arcuated niche which the excavation report suggests was for the Lares. 188 The same report
describes the stove as an 'altar', but a close connection between sacrifice and cooking in such close
quarters makes sense. The multi-purpose nature of this (work)shop is further revealed by the
impression of a niche large enough for either a couch or bed in the north wall underneath the
staircase to the loft. Such furniture could have held up to three diners, and also doubled as a bed,
if the sleeping quarters were not located in the loft above. Gods, humans, cooking and eating: all
those who 'lived' within the (work)shop are intimately intertwined.
In IX.1.4, there is one main room off the street, again with a stair to a loft, and in a small
room behind it are a stove, a latrine, and slots in the wall that indicate the position of a table or
counter (Figs. 2.12, 2.25). 189 In this (work)shop, the lararium has moved out of the kitchen space,
and rests in the form of a painting of two serpents facing each other over an altar that was
painted on the back wall of the main room. Below the painting, a tile to hold offerings or a lamp
stuck out of the wall (only the slot for the tile fit remains today). It is not clear where the eating in
this (work)shop was carried out. Here is a shrine which has been separated slightly from a
defined kitchen, but watches still over its entrance.
185 For instance, Jashemski 1979, 192-193 discusses a tripod and cooking wares found beneath a small
garden shrine in the (work)shop-house I.20.5.
186 Boyce 1937, Orr 1973, Fröhlich 1991.
187 The sole example is in I.6.1, where a painted niche shrine occupied the wall above an industrial hearth
used by the shop blacksmith; the hearth may also have been used to cook food.
188 Kekulé, BdI 1867, 162; see also Boyce 1937, 80, #389.
189 Minervini, BAN 1853, 156-157 ("La bottega n. 74..."); see also Boyce 1937, 79, #380.
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