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

There are two other kitchens in the rest of the house. The smaller KI (8) probably served
the secluded winter dining area DR (10), or was used for smaller, everyday dinners. The large
stove in KI (21) is well-placed to serve the more open DI•(16), DH (17) and the DO in (23),
spacious and well-decorated dining areas arranged to take conspicuous advantage of decoration
in the garden. DR (10), DH (17) and the DO in (23) could all hold large dinner-parties, each at
different seasons of the year; the S part of this property clearly was the reception and
entertainment center of the house. DH (17) had the central emblema of its pavement covered
with a protective sheet of lead; it was not being used at the moment of the eruption, and suggests
that banquets were not being held at the house for seasonal or other reasons (such as the absence
of the owner and most of the household). Except for the DO in (23), the owner did not construct
new dining areas, but assigned specialized functions to the dining areas already existing in each
of the houses that they joined together. The rank of the persons eating in a given area, the season,
and the nature of the occasion were the salient factors determining who was eating where, on any
given day. The segregation of activities based on rank seems particularly clear; kitchens KI (8)
and KI (21) were completely invisible to all of the dining areas. The exception, DR/KI (7), proves
the rule. Only where persons of lowest rank were involved, could all boundaries between
cooking, serving and eating be removed .
34. I.7.13-14, Caupona di Masculus, diner (Figs. 2.5, 5.4, 5.22, 5.92-5.93)
Synopsis
This property is the only one in the sample which the author was unable to enter and
inspect personally; the custodians were unable to find a key to open the gates. Maiuri published
decoration from the face of the sales counter and from the N wall of an upper floor room; besides
his description and accompanying plan, almost no other information is available on this property.
The descriptions and analysis here must therefore be considered provisory, until an official
publication appears. I am reporting only what I was able to record by looking through the gates.
The property has two entrances; the main entrance is on the S at #14, where an L-shaped,
marble-topped sales counter greets the customer of the establishment. Behind the counter on the
W is a door to the small room (2), with a niche carrying space for three shelves in its N wall, and
two niches at the S ends of its E and W walls, for the placement of a bed. The front shop (1) and
entrance #13 both pass into a central covered court area (3), with a HE• in the SE corner, near the
bottom of a staircase to the upper floor that hugs the S wall of the court. Underneath the stairs is
a cistern-head. The stairs accessed rooms above (1, 2) in the front of the shop directly, and
reached a cenaculum over (4, 5), likely by means of a wooden balcony attached to the W wall of
court (3). Facing onto court (3) on the ground floor is the large DR•(4), a multi-purpose reception
area, room (5), a work area of some kind, KI◊(6), and the narrow room (7) with a LT at the W end.
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