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

was usually at least one dining area off the atrium and another off a back garden or peristyle.
Hosts could choose where a meal was to be held, not just according to the season or the weather,
but also according to the social stature of their guests. The host judged the degree of penetration
into the house that the guests merited. Distinctions in rank and status could and had to be made.
The owners of case medie lived on the bubble between the world of the esteemed and the world of
the ordinary -- depending on their handling of important social dinner events, their fortunes
might move in either direction. The 'action' was in those houses. In a casa grande, rarely was
there a choice between dining close to or away from the entrance. All significant reception rooms
in large houses were located around peristyles and large gardens; those fortunate enough to gain
an invitation therein deserved no less than to dine in such surrounds. Owners of case grandi had
already made it to the top stratum of city social life. Their dining areas were designed to impress
their peers; there was no need to dine near the entrance, where clients gave their daily salutatio.
The average distance and number of spaces between fixed cooking and dining areas also
vary according to the size of the building; in larger buildings, centers of cooking and eating are
further apart. 209 Behind these averages, however, lies substantial variation. In the large houses
I.10.4 and I.7.10-12, small cooking areas in (41) and (7) respectively are located in the very same
space as humble dining areas, probably used by the household slaves (see above, pp. 144-145).
However, the main kitchen (52) in I.10.4 is located ca. 30-50 m. and 6-7 spaces away from the six
dining areas concentrating on the central peristyle. Likewise, kitchen (21) in I.7.10-12 is located
(less dramatically) 8-12 m. from the dining areas it serves. In case grandi, dining areas for guests
are far removed from the large kitchens that serve them, just as free citizens are far removed in
rank from slave cooks. Activities that involves persons of the same rank, such as slave cooking
and dining, are done in the same space.
Perceptibility of cooking areas from dining areas (sight, sound and smell)
The spatial relationship between cooking and dining areas depends not only upon the
physical distance between them, but also upon the perceptual distance between them. This is the
extent to which cooking areas were noticeable to dining room guests through the senses of sight,
sound and smell, based upon lines of sight and upon the distance involved. See chapter one, pp.
41-42 and chapter five, p. 182 for descriptions of how sight, sound and smell ranges were
measured.
209 Average distance between fixed cooking and dining areas: diner (5.8 m.), (work)shop-house (9.1 m.),
casa piccola (11.3 m.), casa media (12.7 m.), casa grande (23.1 m.). Average number of spaces between fixed
cooking and dining areas: diner (2.4), (work)shop-house (3.3), casa piccola (4.5), casa media (4.2), casa
grande (4.9).
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