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

insects, efficiently recycling the material. Alternatively, the jar could have held water for
washing up after using the latrine. Water for the kitchen was available from either atrium (b) or
the double cisterns underneath garden (h). The latrine or the street were each suitable for
drainage.
Install. amenities, dining areas: Few finds were recovered from either dining room. DR•(d)
contained one bronze patera, and a rectangle (l. 0.90, w. 0.42 m.) cut in the center of the W edge of
the pavement may indicate the position of a small piece of furniture. No finds or evidence for
installations were reported from DR•(e). Serving and table wares could presumably have been
stored in any of the three easily accessible storage areas in the corners of atrium (b), or perhaps
on the shelves of room (g), wherein a broken crystal chalice was found.
I) Decorative amenities, KI (i): This room was originally a cubiculum with an alcove for a bed at
the E end of the S wall. In the general redecoration of the house in the 3rd style, this room was
given white-ground decoration with small vignettes painted in a simple style, suggesting to De
Vos (PPM I, 434) that the room was given to a high-ranking household slave. When the room
was converted into a kitchen, the ST was installed in the former bed alcove, and the decoration of
the room was damaged considerably by the other installations -- the HE, latrine, and stairs to the
upper floor. The room lacks any pavement today, and its floor level lies two steps (0.40 m.) down
from the level of the atrium. When the room was a cubiculum, the floor was level with the atrium;
it was lowered to its present level presumably to facilitate the installation of the latrine.
Decorative amenities, dining areas: DR•(d) was devoid of wall decoration at the time of the
eruption, and was perhaps under renovation. Its pavement however dates to the 3rd style
renovation of the house, and is raised two steps above the level of the atrium (Fig. 5.65). A
pattern of white tesserae inset around pieces of colored marble in opus signinum (l. 1.5, w. 1.3 m.)
centers on a rectangular emblema of opus sectile bordered with a vine pattern in tesserae. The
spaces left around the emblema suggest a width of ca. 1.25 m. per couch.
The pavement and walls of DR•(e) were both redecorated in the 3rd style. The pavement of
black cocciopesto with inset white tesserae centered on a small square emblema of opus sectile (l.,
w. 0.70 m.) leaves a width of 1.30-1.50 m. around it for the placement of couches (Fig. 5.66). The
lower part of the walls were black ground, matching the pavement, with an upper zone on white
ground. Two surviving central panels on the E and W walls depict a Maenad and Dionysos,
respectively. The decoration of the E wall was disrupted by its window; ancient tunnelers
destroyed the central panel of the N wall.
J) Sanctity: No finds or installations of ritual significance are reported from this house. However,
De Vos (PPM I, 408-409) suggests that room (g) (before it was provided with shelves) and garden
(h) formed an 'Osireion'. She argues that the Egyptian motifs, surrounding water channel and the
engaged pillars on the exterior NW and NE corners of (g) facilitated the re-enactment of the
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