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

completely closed off, and the room was given a new pavement, but not any wall painting;
Spinazzola postulated that the room was used for summer dining and was under renovation at
the time of the eruption. After the A.D. 62 earthquake, the undecorated space (l, m, n) was
subdivided and cooking was transferred to KI (i). At its excavation, area (l) contained a bronze
circular brazier (d. 0.29, h. 0.29 m.) at its center, associated with furniture fittings for a storage
cabinet. Even after the kitchen installations were removed from this space, it seems to have
continued to serve some role in storing cooking appliances. KI (i) was provided with a HE at the
E wall, a ST in the SE corner, a latrine in the SW corner below a stair to a newly constructed
upper floor facing onto the street, and a grinding table in the center of the N wall (Figs. 5.18, 5.63-
5.64). Another stair on the W wall of the atrium led to second floor rooms above the back of the
house and around the garden; the under-stair, closed off with opus craticum, became a storage
space. A chest in the NE corner and a cupboard in the SE corner provided additional storage in
the atrium. The N wall of garden (h) received a megalographic Nilotic painting in the 4th style.
The walls of room (g), also painted in the 4th style, were still later punctured with a series of
holes for shelving. A silver and bronze water-heater (h. 0.24, d. 0.19 m.) was found just N of the
entrance to this storeroom.
The heavy tunneling of salvage or scavenge operations after the eruption may account
for the few finds that were found in the house, especially from the storage spaces in the atrium.
Allison doubts that the house could so thoroughly have been cleaned out after the eruption.
Disbelieving that the inhabitants of the house would have been able to take many possessions
with them during the eruption, she postulates that the house had been 'reduced' prior to the
eruption. The storage in (g) and KI (i) is taken as evidence of this 'reduction', but the conversion
of decorated rooms into storage spaces does not necessarily imply downgraded conditions in the
whole house, but merely an alteration in the use of certain rooms. Without storage, a household
is unable to operate at all. The house was occupied until at least A.D. 69 on the basis of
numismatic evidence, and perhaps until A.D. 78 (according to Franklin) on the basis of the
owner's run for the office of duumvir. This evidence implies a socially engaged, not a 'reduced'
household. 53 It is likely that prompt escape with household goods during the eruption, and the
subsequent salvage of remaining items can account for the general lack of finds. The house is
connected to the Sabellian gens of the Ceii on the basis of numerous electoral recommendations
painted on the 1st style facade.
53 Allison 1992b, 316, attempts to nullify Franklin's argument by noting Mouritsen's general arguments
against the exact dating of electoral campaigns (1988, 41). However, she ignores Mouritsen's specific
assertion that the candidacy for duumvir of L. Ceius Secundus "must be placed in the second half of the 70's"
(1988, 42).
236