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

low relief (w. 0.4 m.) on the E and W walls, separating the dining-chamber to the N (l. 4.42 m.)
from the entry and service area to the S (l. 1.90 m.). The ratio, of dining: service area = 2:1, is
common for 2nd style dining rooms. 46 Traces of the 2nd style decoration still remain on the E
wall of the room. No finds are reported from this room, save a painted semicircular niche with
stucco figures in relief behind a frieze (no longer extant), the location of which Della Corte gives
simply as "Ad oriente dell'ambiente h". 47 He says furthermore that the ash deposits in the S area
of the house generally were mixed, and concludes that the area was disturbed in antiquity.
I) Decorative amenities, KI (m): Simple plaster covers the walls: a high red socle with white
plaster above. At the base of the walls there is short (h. 0.24 m.) ledge, a sort of plastered
washboard that would have helped to protect the base of the wall from water, mess and abuse.
Decorative amenities, DR◊(g): The pavement of the room contained pieces of polychrome
marble set in the cocciopesto. The walls of the room were decorated in the 4th style; small
personifications of the seasons of summer and autumn form vignettes in the centers of the E and
N walls, respectively.
J) Sanctity: A scene of Bacchus as a child driving a chariot filled with vessels is painted on the
right pilaster upon entering the building (see Boyce). Other than the possible niche in DR (h) (see
above), there is no other evidence for ritual activity on this property.
Synthesis
The original house had DR (h) carefully designed to hold three couches and to have a
view out onto the garden. The installation of the work-basins in the garden would have
prohibited by their sight and smell any further comfortable dining there; consequently, it lost its
dining function. DR◊(g) is the only other space in the house large enough, well-decorated
enough and sufficiently removed from the work basins in (p) to serve as an area for formal
reception and dining; it probably served multiple functions. Its position perpendicular to the axis
of the entrance to the garden gives it some relief from being involved directly in the traffic along
that axis, but still allows the room to dominate the atrium via its broad doorway. DR◊(g) could
have been well served by KI (m), located only one corridor and two porticos away. The well-
preserved kitchen demonstrates the array of equipment needed to serve the needs of a household
that has a single formal dining area.
To what level of formality were dinners held, in a place where industry and living were
so closely juxtaposed? What was the status of invited guests, if guests were ever invited? Were
any efforts made to disguise the work areas during a banquet? Were there two household staffs,
46 Barbet 1985, 66-70, 130-135; see Dunbabin 1991, 123, n. 17.
47 Della Corte NSc 1912, 353. The description seems to be of a niched shrine, but Boyce makes no such
mention in his volume.
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