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

Data
A) Total area: 38.6 Nodes: 23.9 Connectors: 0 Static spaces: 14.7
B) Total # spaces: 2 # Nodes: 1 # Connectors: 0 # Static spaces: 1
C) Area, ST in (b): 2.5 D) Entry prox., ST in (b): 6.6 E) Entry access., HE in (b): 3
H) Installation amenities, ST in (b): The ST, sub-type (2), is made of rubble and cement masonry,
poured over a peaked tile form to form a single supporting arch (Fig. 5.26). The arch has an
exterior facing of radially set tiles. The stove-top is tiled, built slightly higher at the back than the
front, perhaps to facilitate cleaning. The doorway and window in the W wall of room (b) afford
light via the street. A niche in the W wall 0.41 m. above the stove top may have held a lamp.
Ventilation would have been difficult through the same door and window, as there is no
evidence for a chimney above the stove in the recess. The (work)shop has no internal water
source, but a street fountain was located nearby at the NW corner of the block. The street served
for drainage; no latrine was available. The whole shop complex served for storage and
workspace. Few finds recorded from the shop, and none were specifically attributed to the stove.
J) Sanctity: No ritual areas or finds are reported from this shop.
Synthesis
There is no obvious dining area in the complex. If the proprietors lived here, they
probably used the back room as a multi-purpose area, for cooking, eating, living, and sleeping. If
the occupants were part of the household directed from (I.4.1-3), they may have just worked in
this shop, and lived in the main house. In its early life, the shop was probably owned by the
owner of the Casa del Citarista, to which it was connected. At a later date, those connections
were closed, and a window opened up with the lunch counter at (I.4.3). If the owner of (I.4.1-3)
purchased this shop, he may have installed the ST in (I.4.4) to help produce food and hot drinks
to be passed through the window for sale behind the counter of the lunch counter.
3. I.4.5-6+25+28, Casa del Citarista, casa grande + (work)shop
(Figs. 2.3, 5.2, 5.9-5.10, 5.27-5.33)
Synopsis
This is the largest building in the sample, taking up the greater part of insula (I.4). It is
the result of the fusion of two neighboring atrium-peristyle houses with entrances at #5 and #25.
Once separated along the line marked by the stairs leading down from peristyle (56) to peristyle
(17), these two houses were joined in the early first century B.C. 24 Late in the same century, a
small atrium house at #28 was added and converted into a service entrance and stable; the entry
24 Italienische Reise, 119; PPM I, 117 dates the joining of the two houses to after the founding of the Roman
colony in 80 B.C., although Dwyer 1982, 84 prefers a very late date of after A.D. 62.
188