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

underground to feed the cistern underneath its head in the NW corner. The channel widened
into a low basin at its E end, just N of the HE. Drainage was provided by a one-seat latrine with a
tiled floor in space (9) at the SW corner of the garden. Beam-holes in the walls behind reveal that
a rough shed-roofed portico sheltered the W and N sides of the garden (Fig. 5.96). Supports for
this portico must have been wooden columns or simple poles with no bases, as no traces of them
survive. Another water source had its access point under the stairs in entranceway (1), but this
was probably of more use to the shops at #15 and #17, neither of which have any water or
heating installations of their own.
Installation amenities, DO in (2): The top surfaces of the three masonry couches have the
customary gentle slope towards their outside edges. In their center is the remains of a
rectangular masonry table. Soprano noted no plastering either upon the couches or the table,
consistent with the general lack of extant decoration in the garden.
J) Sanctity: There is no record of any ritual installations or finds from the property; a small
rectangular niche in the wall above the cistern head off the NW corner of the garden appears to
be the only candidate for a shrine.
Synthesis
The layout of the main building at #16 with its flanking dependent shops is not a
traditional house or shop type. The building seems to have functioned also both residence and
business; the presence of a bedroom on the upper floor suggests that persons lived here, and the
DO and HE prove that meals were made here. Because the DO is open to the elements and
appears to be the only dining area, it is tempting to suggest that the couches were used for special
occasions, perhaps communal meals whose invitees were primarily scriptores. One or more
scriptores and their households may have inhabited sections of the upper floors over the main
building and the shops; the ground floor could have served for business and pleasure. There is
no attempt to impress a guest with elaborate decoration in garden court (2), and the couches
themselves are of low quality; the only decoration seems to have been the wall-scribbling of the
scriptores themselves. The cooking area is within plain sight of the dining couches; as there is no
guarantee that scriptores could afford slaves, the occupants may very well have had to cook their
own meals. The DO appears to have served the professional community of scriptores -- perhaps
their sodalicium or collegium was headquartered within the walls of this home/office.
36. I.7.18, Taberna di Niraemius, (work)shop-house (Figs. 2.5, 5.4, 5.23, 5.99-5.103)
Synopsis
The N half of this shop-house was excavated and published by Maiuri, but information
for the S half, like (I.7.13-14) and (I.7.15-17), remains unavailable. The building originally had a
separate fauces on axis with the present doorway of (d). Sutherland suggests that the garden (h)
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