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

I) Decorative Amenities, CS in (g): Three marble bases for statuettes were placed in the small
walled garden (f) around a semi-circular basin. On the S wall of court (g), painting in the 4th
style complemented the natural vegetation. The decoration showed, against a background of
flowering bushes, a low wooden fence curving around a tall fountain in the center, on which
several birds perched. More flowering bushes over a red socle decorated the E wall of attached
corridor (e'), also in the 4th style. The household cooked in a garden made up of real and
artificial plants, flowers, and water sources.
Decorative Amenities, DI•(c): The floor was constructed of opus signinum and decorated with
inset white tesserae that formed a central floral-bordered emblema (PPM I, 557, #7). Space
occupied by couches was left undecorated on three sides of the emblema; the remaining space in
front was elaborated by a pattern of squares outlined with white tesserae. The walls were simply
decorated with a red socle and a white ground upper zone. Schefold calls room (l) a 'triclinium',
presumably on the basis of its central mosaic emblema and still lives of birds and fruit on the
walls, but the room is exceptionally small (7.4 m 2 ) for dining.
J) Sanctity: There is no evidence for ritual finds or installations in the house.
Synthesis
Rooms are of small size and there are few fixed installations. The largest room DI•(c)
and the small room (l) both have central emblema and direct views onto the two nodes of the
house; (l) would have been immediately next to the cooking in court (g) and seems too small for
dining. In cramped quarters, it was practical to cook where utilities of light, air, water and
drainage were concentrated, and this activity was also largely hidden from any dining taking
place in DI•(c). Other than this, there does not seem to be any strong division of function
between the front and back of the house; both areas include storage, work and reception or
relaxation areas as well as the environmental benefits conferred by a space open to the sky.
Given the need to utilize all available space by constructing upper floor rooms above both the
front and back parts of the house, one wonders whether dining was also carried out on an upper
floor space with a balcony, either over the street or over garden/court (f, g).
28. I.7.4, Officina vasaria di Corinthus, (work)shop (Figs. 2.5, 5.4, 5.20, 5.73)
Synopsis
This two-room shop had a staircase along the W wall to an upper floor with a balcony
overlooking the street. In the NW corner of the main room (1), between the base for the stairs
and a small room (2) to the N, was a HE of which only traces remain today (Fig. 5. 73). Maiuri
described the masonry hearth upon which a tripod was found in situ. An Arretine cup, shallow
bowl, the lid for a cauldron, and several glass bottles and vases containing the carbonized
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