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

Synthesis
DR•(b), with its fine wall decoration and pavement, is the show-room of the house,
concentrating the viewer's attention within the room by means of the large scale panel
mythological paintings in the center of the walls. Seascape and landscape elements in the panels
substituted for an actual view out of the room. This room was reached almost immediately upon
entering the house; visitors did not have to penetrate into the back quarter of the house unless
dinners were also held in DH◊(n). DH◊(n) had its own view of a natural landscape through the
large window onto garden (m), shaded by a large tree, which may explain its lack of interior
decoration. However, the room (originally open to the sky) had recently been covered over, and
seems to have been awaiting redecoration. If DR•(b) and DH◊(n) were both intended for dining,
they formed a tandem that offered dining with emphasis on either indoor or outdoor settings. KI
(i), found well-equipped with cooking utensils, a ready water source and drainage, was
convenient for serving DR•(b). However proximate to the dining room, KI (i) was still
practically invisible and just out of smell range. Servants bringing food would have seemed to
appear suddenly. The irregular shape and layout of this house determined to a degree that
visitors would not be treated to any traditional positioning of the rooms. However, long axial
views still occur, from the front door to the back of the atrium, and the atrium to DH◊(n). The
fact that DR•(b) was removed from the primary sight-lines of the house contributed perhaps to
the owner's concentration on its interior decoration.
32. I.7.8-9, Popina, lunch-counter (Figs. 2.5, 5.4, 5.20, 5.83)
Synopsis
This lunch-counter had an L-shaped counter marking the front and center of main room
(a). The counter had a marble-top with two inset storage jars; the exterior face was painted red
(Fig. 5.83). At the S end of the counter was a HE of sub-type (4) with a burner upon which jars of
water could be heated for the cutting and mulling of wine, and over which food could be cooked.
Maiuri suggests that room (A) was used by the customers of the establishment; this cannot be
confirmed -- it is small and irregularly shaped. Fallen from the upper floor rooms (reached via a
wooden stair at #9) were a basalt mortar, a colander, five amphorae, and two bowls inscribed
with the names of three garum producers. Balconies on the upper floor connected all the way
across the narrow street on the E to insula (I.8). A LT on the upper floor is shown by a drainage
pipe immured in the NW corner of room (a); another LT may have been located on the ground
floor in room (b), reached with difficulty under the stairs. At the N end of the W wall of room (a)
is a small painted niche, perhaps of ritual significance. A large local shrine is just across the street
from this lunch counter: two painted serpents face a built podium shrine on the W exterior wall
of insula (I.8); the whole ensemble measures ca. 14 m. long.
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