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

instead a garden with a porch on the N side fitted with a drain to catch water from its shed roof,
and a paved area DO◊(l) on the S suitable for outdoor dining. A cubiculum (i) with bed niche
rests to the E; Fiorelli suggested that two small rooms (m, n) on the W are servants quarters. To
the W of the atrium proper is DI◊(d), and another well-decorated room (c) sits to the N (Fig. 5.44).
The house ceded a large room on the SW towards the mid 1 c. A.D. which became DH•(m) for
(I.4.9). The house itself was undergoing renovation at the time of eruption. With the exception of
the well-decorated rooms (c, i), all other rooms were being re-plastered; the preparatory layer of
stucco is still visible, striated in a herringbone pattern and ready to receive the final painted layer.
References
Jashemski 1993, 32; PPM I, 181-192; PPP I, 14; CTP IIIA, 8-9; CTP II, 227, n. 1; Dwyer, PG 1980 (5),
5-6; Soprano 1950, 307, #29; Schefold 1957, 17; Fiorelli 1875, 67-68; Fiorelli 1873, 69; Breton 1869,
481-482.
Data
A) Total area: 274.9 Nodes: 87.3 Connectors: 26.7 Static spaces: 162.8
B) Total # spaces: 14 # Nodes: 1 # Connectors: 2 # Static spaces: 11
C) Area, KI (h): 9.3 Area, DI◊(d): 16.9 Length, DI◊(d): 3.53 Width, DI◊(d): 4.79
Area, DO◊(l): 17.7 Length, DO◊(l): 4.03 Width, DO◊(l): 4.38
D) Entry prox., KI (h): 20.1 Entry prox., DI◊(d): 15.9 Prox, KI (h)-DI◊(d): 12.8
Entry prox., DO◊(l): 21.3 Prox, KI (h)-DO◊(l): 9.5
E) Entry access., KI (h) 4 Entry access., DI◊(d): 4 Access, KI (h)-DI◊(d): 3
Entry access., DO◊(l): 5 Access, KI (h)-DO◊(l): 4
F) Sight perc., KI (h)-DI◊(d): E Sound perc., KI (h)-DI◊(d): T Smell perc., KI (h)-DI◊(d): F
Sight perc., KI (h)-DO◊(l): N Sound perc., KI (h)-DO◊(l): T Smell perc., KI (h)-DO◊(l): F
G) Environmental amenities, dining areas: DI◊(d) draws light and air via a wide doorway E onto
the atrium and another doorway S onto ala (e) (Fig. 5.44). The wide E doorway would have
precluded any standard arrangement of dining couches facing S (the lectus summus would have
blocked that doorway), so couches would have been oriented E through that doorway. DO◊(l)
was identified as a dining area by Fiorelli, although there is little supporting physical evidence.
The open nature of DO◊(l) favored it with natural light and air; a bower could have been
constructed across its width to offer shade during the summer months when it would have been
in use. Couches would have faced N. Sight-lines were a concern; the doorway onto the atrium
was set eastward of center, so that the view from the garden to the atrium might first center upon
the impluvium, and then the fauces beyond. DO◊(l) might have caught smells from neighboring
kitchen (42) in (I.4.5+25), against which it backs.
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