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

lighting from atrium (A") via passage (15) was always present. DI◊(16) does have an awkward
view, half of a corridor down to a shrine, and half of DH (17). DH (17) however was carefully
oriented to take advantage of an elevated aspect over the garden and its statues, outdoor dining
area, and aedicular fountain. Four broken marble statuettes were found in this room; Maiuri
believed they were brought into the room during the eruption for protection, and that they
adorned the space in front of the couches, either under the portico or in the garden. Allison
argues that they were broken before they were placed in the room, and that this (combined with
too few dining couches in the room, see below) indicates the room had lost its dining function
prior to the eruption and was being used to store broken pieces of sculpture. A lead sheet placed
for protection over the central emblema of the dining-hall does suggest that the room was not
being used for dining at the very moment of the eruption. However, the simple removal of the
lead sheet and the dressing of the couches with cushions and linens by slaves would have very
quickly made this room into an operating dining-hall. The sculpture may well have been part of
the decoration, extending a wild, Bacchic theme that appears in the themes of the wall-decoration
of DH (17) into three dimensions. Its view, through folding doors and colonnades onto a 'natural
landscape' is echoed closely by a description of Pliny's Laurentine villa. 62
The DO in (23) has a complementary view of the main living quarters of the house from its
'insular' location amongst the water, air, statues and vegetation of the outdoors. It maintained a
moderate temperature, protected from the harshness of direct sunlight by a bower stretched over
four columns that mark the corners of the couches. The DO in (23) is indubitably for summer
dining. The owners of this house clearly tried to differentiate their dining areas according to a
vulnerability to, or exploitation of, the meteorological conditions.
H) Installation amenities, cooking areas: A solid masonry ST of sub-type (1) was built against the
S end of the E wall of /KI (7), in a space not occupied by the dining couches in the room (Fig.
5.85). The tile topped surface of the ST (l. 1.85, w. 0.77, h. 0.51) had a lip on the front edge formed
by the edges of tegulae. At the time of excavation, the imprint of a vase was identified on the
stove-top, and parts of hand-mills were also recovered. Few other cooking items were reported
from the area; three bronze vessels were piled in the SW corner of atrium (A'), but they are not
well-enough described to know whether they were used for cooking, eating, or storage. Water
was available from the quarter-circle basin in the SW corner of court (6), which caught the rain
from the roof of the N part of the house and fed it to a cistern underneath atrium (A'), whence it
could be drawn from a hole in the NW corner. Drainage was more difficult; the only latrine in
this N section of the house was just to the side of the colonnaded cenaculum upstairs above room
(2), where a down-pipe is still built into the NE corner. Another latrine was located on the
62 Plin. Ep. 2.17.5; see above, chapter two, p. 99, n. 212.
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