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

equired. While the dining areas were arranged to gaze at each other, the suite of service and
storage areas on the E side of the peristyle faced across the garden at only portico with no
associated rooms. KI (14) was strategically placed in all of its aspects. Practically, it was able to
draw upon storage from the cryptoporticus below, transporting goods without disrupting the
rest of the house, through the secondary entrance at #20 and the private covered street. Servants
could gather water from two cistern heads off the E portico. The kitchen was equipped with two
drainage channels and a latrine within its own walls. Its large stove could handle dinners in any
of the dining areas (all nearby), but the kitchen was removed just enough from the dining areas
so that its preparations could neither be seen nor smelled. The whole design is integrated
efficiently; guests can move smoothly through the house via the N and W porticos to a given
dining area, where the orientation and decoration is guaranteed to present a pleasant view. The
servants, drawing supplies and using utilities via a secondary, hidden entrance, move primarily
along the E portico, where they will not interfere with the tableau presented to the diners.
27. I.7.2-3, Casa di M. Fabius Amandus, casa piccola (Figs. 2.5, 5.4, 5.20, 5.71-5.72)
Synopsis
This house was originally part of the neighboring house (I.7.1) to the W; its facade and
the border of its impluvium belong to the second century B.C. It gained its independence
probably during the first century B.C. when the peristyle was built in (I.7.1), judging from traces
of 2nd style decoration in rooms (e, l). Most of the house preserves 4th style decoration.
The house has two entrances; room (b) at #2 is a narrow space usually interpreted as a
porter’s lodge, but containing numerous weaving tools. A stair to upper floor rooms and a
balcony over the street led from the S end of room (b). The fauces (a) ran past DI•(c) into atrium
(d) with no side rooms (Fig. 5.71). The bedroom (e) lay off the SE corner of the atrium, where the
tablinum might have been expected. A narrow passage (e') led to the rooms at the back of the
house, centered around a court (g) and the small associated garden (f). Stairs led over a latrine in
(h) to reach upper floor rooms at the back, including a balcony over the S edge of (g) (Fig. 5.72).
A storage area (i) lay off the SE corner, and a well-decorated bedroom or sitting room (l) had an
axial view directly onto garden (f).
References
Wallace-Hadrill 1994, 169-173; Jashemski 37, 316; PPM I, 553-575; PPP I, 53-57; Gassner 1986, 130;
CTP IIIA, 12-13; Laidlaw 1985, 65-66; Guida Laterza 1982, 112-113; Guida 1976, 211; Schefold
1957, 29-30; Maiuri 1954a, 110-112; Della Corte 1954, 260-261; #642-643; Spinazzola II, 687-689;
Maiuri 1938, 1-3; Maiuri NSc 1927, 4, 7-15; Della Corte 1927, 30; Della Corte NSc 1912, 31-32; 65-
68; 1911, 417, 458.
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