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

I) Decorative amenities, DR•(4): Evans hypothesizes, on the basis of the construction styles of the
atrium, that this room was not originally part of the house. However, the chronological
correlation between the 1st style cocciopesto pavement and the ashlar construction of the rooms
around the atrium suggests that DR•(4) was originally designed as part of the house, and as a
dining area. Its pavement decoration consists of a diamond pattern in white tesserae centered on
a rectangular emblema (l. 1.50, w. 1.30 m.) at the W end of the room (Pernice, Taf. 11.5). The
emblema consists of an asterisk of alternating black and white 'spokes' bordered with a pattern of
ivy. The emblema leaves 1.28 m. of space to its N and S, indicating perhaps the width of the
dining couches, which would fit comfortably within the 1.48 m. of the niche in the SW corner. No
wall-painting is preserved from this room.
J) Sanctity: An elevated, arcuated niche faces out from the SE corner of the garden (13), the lower
part of its interior painted in red; Maiuri describes the niche as a modest lararium.
Synthesis
The cooking and eating arrangements in this house are few and simple: one large dining
room to the side of the atrium, with appropriate decoration, and a small hearth in the near corner
of the atrium, out of sight of the diners, but well within aural and olfactory range. DR•(4) is an
original part of the house, but the HE appears to have been added later, perhaps as a more
permanent substitute for portable cooking devices such as braziers that were also likely used
within the atrium. The back garden is apparently not exploited as a vista or background for
dining; practical concerns seem to have outweighed aesthetic concerns. Around the middle of
the first century A.D., the house was cleared of its furniture and objects in the process of its
renovation (explaining the paucity of finds in the house), but the work was suddenly cut off by
the A.D. 62 earthquake, and the property was allowed to deteriorate, except perhaps for some
limited occupation of the second floor above the S range of rooms.
25. I.6.15, Casa dei Ceii, casa media (Figs. 2.4, 2.16, 5.3, 5.18, 5.63-5.66)
Synopsis
This atrium house was essentially constructed in the latter half of the second century B.C.
The fauces (a), flanked by two cubicula (c, i), led into the tetrastyle atrium (b) without side rooms.
Behind the atrium, a corridor (k) ran between the tablinum (d) on the W and a dining room (e) on
the E back to a porticoed garden (h, r) with a large service room (l, m, n) on the E side. Michel
hypothesizes that (l, m) was the original kitchen of the house, with a latrine in the space later
blocked off to become (n).
Nearly the whole house received redecoration and repaving in the late 3rd style,
including DR•(e), atrium (b), and the cubiculum (i). The S wall of tablinum (d) was then almost
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