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

prepared the food and run the counter. 22 In the latter life of the house, a window was opened
between the lunch counter at #3 and (work)shop (I.4.4); a proper stove therein may have taken
over the cooking for the lunch counter at that time.
The HE in (b) may also have been sufficient to serve the members of the household eating
in DR•(g). Fiorelli's suggestion of a kitchen on the second floor is intriguing; the upper story
would have covered the whole house E of the atrium except for court (f), whose columns were
walled up in its last phase, perhaps in order to carry extra upper-floor space above the former
porticos. There remains no physical evidence, however, for a kitchen on that level. An upper
story kitchen would not have been any more convenient than the existing HE in atrium (b).
Both the hearth and the dining room take advantage of the light and air offered by their
respective courts. However, the HE in (b) is centralized, and DR•(g) is marginalized (or at least
given a more secluded location). Furthermore, the lunch counter at #3 has a forward and very
public location. This arrangement indicates that a clear spatial distinction was made between the
more public, economic function of selling food on the street, and the more private, social function
of the evening dinner. The hearth was located in the space between, suitable for serving both.
2. I.4.4, Taberna, (work)shop (Figs. 2.3, 5.2, 5.8, 5.26)
Synopsis
Front shop (a) has a wide entrance onto the street, and is connected to a back room (b) by
a doorway and window. A doorway and a window in the N wall of (a) originally connected with
the fauces of the Casa del Citarista (I.4.5+25), but were later blocked up into niches. 23 It was
perhaps at the same time that a window was opened in the S wall of (a) to communicate with the
lunch counter at (I.4.3); perhaps the owner of (I.4.1-3) may have gained possession of this shop at
that time. Two steps lead up to room (b), which has a ST set in a deep recess in its NW corner,
heavily restored (Fig. 5.26). Little stucco remains upon the walls, and there is no stair to the
upper floor. There is no information about the identity of the occupants, or what was made or
sold here.
References
CTP IIIA, 8-9; PPP I, 9; Gassner 1986, 127; Overbeck 1884, 360; Fiorelli 1875, 61; Fiorelli 1873, 66;
Breton 1869, 488; Minervini BAN (2), 118; PAH II, 586 (2 Dic., 1853).
22 Kleberg 1957, 80 notes: "Le rattachement effectué dans les divers cas entre le local servant à la
consommation et l'atrium témoigne indiscutablement d'une relation existant entre le tenancier de
l'établissement et la propriétaire de la maison. Il est vraisemblable que celui-ci a utilisé comme gérant un
esclave, au moins dans les cas où le fourneau requis par les besoins de l'établissement se trouve placé dans
l'atrium de la maison."
23 The window niche in this wall is lined with a layer of red plaster, pockmarked to receive a new coat; this
shop may have been in renovation at the time of the eruption.
187