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

64. I.10.7, Casa del Fabbro, casa media (Figs. 2.8, 2.27, 5.7, 5.167-5.170)
Synopsis
The finds and furniture from this house were numerous and well-recorded. Underneath
the stairs at the back of the house is KI (11), closed off from portico (10) by a wall of opus craticum.
Tucked into the arch that supports the staircase is a one-arched masonry ST of sub-type (2) (Figs.
2.27, 5.167). The ST has a plastered facade, a tiled top, and a curb of imbrices at the front edge. In
the SW corner of the ST are two burners of brick built against a back curb of upright bricks.
Found in the kitchen were several cooking vessels: two bronze cooking pots, a bronze jug, two
ceramic jugs, a ceramic cooking pot and two ceramic bowls. Associated with a small plaster shelf
S of the ST is a large scale lararium painting on the S wall. At the W end of portico (10), near KI
(11), a large iron BZ was uncovered in the company of a hand mill. Atrium (3) was the center for
storage of cooking, serving and eating apparatus; there were two cupboards each against the S
and E walls, and one chest each along the E and N walls. In the chest near the NE corner was an
iron brazier and tongs, and numerous glass vessels. A mortar and pestle, and a few other bronze
and ceramic vessels belonged to the cupboards on the S wall. Two chests containing serving and
storage wares, fallen from the room above (7), offered additional storage. The latrine in the house
was located under the stairs to the upper floor in room (1).
DR•(8), painted in the late 3rd style, was apparently converted from a cubiculum to a
dining room; remains of a couch/bed were found, as well as several pots, a ladle, and a chest of
iron tools that indicate a storage function as well (Fig. 5.168). DR (9), also painted in the late 3rd
style, has a pavement of white tesserae in cocciopesto that clearly mark out the position (for
three, not two as Elia claims) dining couches around a central emblema. A niche for a couch
(lectus medius, w. 1.24 m.) in the NW corner was actually found filled with a dining couch. At this
couch were two skeletons with a hoard of coins and two bronze jugs; three other bronze vessels
were found in the SW corner (Fig. 5.170). A lararium niche was cut into the E wall of the room
(Fig. 5.169). Remains of a wooden bower were recovered from the center of garden (12),
suggesting the location of a DO there, a counterpoint to the two dining areas DR•(8) and DR (9).
Statuary decorated the garden, including a statuette of Hercules on the S wall that may have
marked another cult place.
References
Jashemski 1993, 49; Allison 1992b, 199-211; Fröhlich 1991, 256; PPM II, 398-420; Rediscovering
Pompeii 1990, #31, #44; Gralfs 1988, 50-56; Ling 1987, 154-158; PPP I, 133-137; CTP IIIA, 18-19;
Ling 1983; Guida Laterza 1982, 88-89; Jashemski 1979, 122; Bastet & De Vos 1979, 87-88, 114;
Guida 1976, 172-174; Schefold 1957, 46-47; Della Corte 1954, 249-250, #599-602; Soprano 1950, 307,
299