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

and garden; rooms (6, 7) have traces of red ground plaster on its walls; their function is unclear.
Only a second floor room directly over (6) has a niche at the N end of its E wall, for a bed.
The property is described by Della Corte as a workshop for artisans who write notices,
advertisements and electoral programmata upon the walls of Pompeii. The identification is
based on two persons, Astylus and Papilio (known as scriptores from their work elsewhere) who
put their names on the walls of garden court (2).
References
Jashemski 1993, 41; Mouritsen 1988, 31-32, n. 119-120; CTP IIIA, 12-13; Gassner 1986, 130; Franklin
1978; Della Corte 1954, 266, #650-654; Soprano 1950, 296, #6; Maiuri 1938, 1.
Data (Not including 3 rooms and 45.0 m 2 of I.7.15 and 4 rooms and 49.7 m 2 of I.7.17)
A) Total area: 185.8 Nodes: 79.1 Connectors: 17.3 Static spaces: 89.4
B) Total # spaces: 14 # Nodes: 1 # Connectors: 3 # Static spaces: 8
C) Area, HE in (2): 2.5 Area, DO in(2): 16.9 Length, DO in (2): 3.94 Width, DO in (2): 4.30
D) Entry prox., HE in (2): 17.9 Entry prox., DO in (2): 15.9 Prox, HE in (2)-DO in (2): 3.0
E) Entry access., HE in (2): 4 Entry access., DO in (2): 5 Access, HE in (2)-DO in (2): 2
F)Sight perc., HE in (2)-DO in (2): V
Sound perc., HE in (2)-DO in (2): T Smell perc., HE in (2)-DO in (2): T
G) Environmental amenities, DO in (2): This dining area, placed within the SE corner of garden-
court (2), appears to have been completely open to the sky (Figs. 5.96-5.97). The garden walls on
the E and S are preserved at too low a height to reveal whether they helped to support a bower
for shade over the couches. If there was a bower, it was made of wood, as there are no traces of a
support at the NW corner of the couches. The presence of a portico with wooden supports can
however be inferred on the W and N sides of the garden (see below), so a simple bower over the
couches is not out of the question. With its orientation towards the NW, this dining area is
suitable for summer use. There are no other covered rooms at this address which show any
evidence of being used for dining, so it appears that formal dinners could have been held only
here, and only on limited occasions (fair weather).
H) Installation amenities, HE in (2): Against the N end of the E wall of garden (2) are two parallel
masonry stub walls, each (w. 0.21-0.26, l. 0.63, h. 0.55, and 0.60 m. apart). These form a HE of
sub-type (2), missing its tile-topped surface (Figs. 5.97-5.98). Traces of plaster still hang on the
bottom of the interior and exterior faces of the stub walls. Space for storage was probably
available in the small closet (8) just to the N. Light and ventilation were plentiful. Water was
retrieved from a well with a platform next to the stairs to the upper floor under the roof of the
NW corner of the garden. Water was collected off the shed roofs of the rooms on the N side of
the building by a channel running along the N side of the garden, and eventually piped
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