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

(I.7.19) eat? The extent of serving and table wares found in the house consisted of a silver
kantharos with relief decoration with a skeleton in fauces (u), and two silver casseruole and a plate
with a skeleton in bedroom (t). As items of personal possession intended to be salvaged during
the eruption, these items unfortunately do not illuminate the storage locations of table wares, or
indicate where the residents took their meals.
I) Decorative amenities, KI (l): Stretches of coarse plain plaster adorn the walls.
Decorative amenities, dining areas: The floor of DH•(b) belongs to the second century B.C., an
opus signinum pavement with white tesserae dispensed in regular, equidistant rows. The walls
have a black socle with vegetal decoration; above, the red-ground main zone has sacro-idyllic
landscapes in panels centered on each wall (Fig. 5.107). The decoration is either genuine late 3rd
style, ca. A.D. 35-45 (Bastet & M. De Vos), or a post-earthquake redecoration of the room in the
manner of the 3rd style (A. De Vos, PPM I, 750). The latter hypothesis seems untenable, as the N
wall of the room was badly damaged by the earthquake, and the decoration of the room shows
no sign of subsequent repair or replacement; if this room was used as a dining area, it was in the
context of partial decoration.
The decoration of DI•(e) is likewise damaged; no traces remain on the N wall, which was
damaged by the earthquake. The N wall was later rebuilt; against its N face in garden (23) of the
recently connected Casa dell'Efebo (I.7.10-12) was built the aedicular fountain with its
background wall-painting of animals in the countryside. Traces of its late 3rd style decoration
survived on the W and E walls of DI•(e), though damaged by tunnelers. Much of the central
panel on the E wall showing Herakles and Nessos survived. The floor was paved with
cocciopesto, but was piled over with plaster against the W and N walls. Maiuri interpreted the
building material in the room as evidence of its imminent redecoration; Allison suggests that the
renovation had ceased prior to the eruption and the room was being used for simple storage.
J) Sanctity: Two arcuated niched shrines were placed in the NW and NE corners of the garden
portico (g). Just E of the stairs connecting this house to the Casa dell'Efebo are two arched niches;
the lower larger niche seems to have been a storage nook. The upper niche contained the remains
of a wooden chest containing two figurines: a marble Venus and a terracotta woman reclining on
a couch and holding a patera towards which a snake climbs. This seems a clear instance of the
storage of ritual material. At the W end of portico (g) was another arcuated niche marked by a
painted aedicular facade.
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