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

group was arranged especially for viewing through the wide colonnaded entranceway of
DH•(18) (a room usually termed an 'exedra', Fig. 5.31). In addition, marble oscilla carved with
reliefs of Pan and fauns hung from the architrave, between the columns. Mythological creatures
of nature, and wild beasts in action against the backdrop of a fountain created an active natural
landscape contained by the forest of the peristyle columns. The architecture and sculpture were
complemented in DH•(18) by a frieze of three 'villa and landscape' scenes painted on the walls.
The scene would have been appropriate for any sort of gathering, including dinner; occupants of
DH•(18) could have imagined themselves dining outside when they were actually inside. The
NE aspect of the hall would have been coolly appropriate to summer dining, with the statuary
catching the facing rays of the evening sun and reflecting them back into DH•(18). It is tempting
to associate dining areas that face NE (18, 37, 57) with summer dining, and dining areas that face
SW (19, 20, 35, 58) with winter dining. However, a variety of architectural forms (both wide and
narrow doorways, both small and large rooms) are found in both sets of dining areas; there does
not seem to be a simple correlation between the shape of a dining area and its supposed seasonal
orientation. Perhaps an array of different architectural settings for dining were available for each
season; individual rooms within the array could have been chosen according to the occasion.
H) Installation amenities, cooking areas: KI (42) has a broad masonry ST of sub-type (1) along the
N wall (l. 2.62; w. 1.04; h. 0.68) (Figs. 5.9-5.27-5.28). Parts of the tiled surface and the back curb of
upright tiles against the kitchen wall survive at the E end of the stove. Opposite the stove on the
S side is a SO built into the wall shared with the bath complex (40-41) (Fig. 5.29). Above this oven
is a flattened area of polygonal shape with a cut channel leading to the SW towards the apsed
niche in the caldarium (41) of the baths. This channel presumably held a lead pipe that brought
water heated in a metal tank down to fill the tub in the apse. A segment of lead pipe rests today
in front of the stove, but it is not clear that it is in situ. No pieces of the tank survive; the bath
complex was scavenged after the eruption, and such a large amount of metal must have been
worth the effort of removing. The oven, while heating water for the baths, also would have been
suitable for cooking food and perhaps even baking small amounts of bread. The hypocaust
system of the baths was not heated by the oven, but by a stokehole, the W wall of which survives;
the E wall has been restored on the detailed plan (Fig. 5.9). The placement of this stokehole
served to heat a rectangular tub that took up the entire N wall of caldarium (41).
Accommodations for light and ventilation were minimal; the small open court (43) to the SE may
have been the only source for both. Excavation was never carried out to clear the various 'basins'
and 'wells' in this area, so it is difficult to precisely ascertain their functions. However, it is clear
that water sources were ample. Water was collected from the small court (43), and from a
plastered quarter-circle shaped basin (straight sides 0.94 x 0.84) in the NE corner of corridor (38b)
that presumably drew from an underground cistern. Water was also collected from the peristyles
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