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

CHAPTER II
DEFINING COOKING AND DINING AREAS
The terminology assigned to various rooms of the Roman house has always been based
on the reconciliation of archaeological and textual sources. Terms used in modern scholarship for
'dining room' such as cenatio, triclinium, oecus, exedra, and basilica, are all borrowed from ancient
authors. 1 Since the earliest excavations at Pompeii, scholars have used these Latin terms to
describe the functions of rooms, often without precise definition: "As a consequence, the
impression given is that we are well-informed, not only as to the name ascribed to each room in a
Pompeian house, but also as to its function." 2 As Allison has shown, the functions that these
terms imply for rooms cannot always be corroborated by archaeology. In order to refine the
debate, I will construct clearly defined typologies and terminologies based on the archaeological
evidence. These may serve as new standards for categorizing kitchen installations and dining
rooms both at Pompeii and elsewhere. I also systematically sort through the Latin terminology
and point out where it is appropriate, and where it is not, to make connections between
archaeological types and traditional literary terms.
The areas where Romans cooked and dined are described and defined in three parts.
First, parameters define the boundaries of inquiry: the samples of buildings chosen for analysis,
the objects, monuments and materials from those samples that comprise the body of evidence,
and the chronological limits of the study. The second part offers a terminology and typology for
cooking areas, and the third part a terminology and typology for dining areas. Terminology
discusses the names for cooking and dining areas in Latin literature, and how those ancient terms
have been used in modern scholarship. Typology presents a new classification of cooking and
dining areas according to their measurable physical characteristics and assigns to them a neutral
English terminology that can be connected to, but does not rely upon, the Latin terminology.
1 Vitruvius discusses the proper placement, aspect, proportions, and decoration for Roman dining areas in
6.3.2, 8-11 and 6.4-5; see also Var. L. 5.161-162.
2 Allison 1992b, 14. She points out the basic problems in harnessing literary terminology to interpret room
functions in excavated houses, but does not investigate the literature in detail (p. 12, n. 2). See also Allison
1992a, 235-236; Gozzini Giacosa 1992, 21-23; Dunbabin 1991, 123-126; Salza Prina Ricotti 1987, 124-129; Dosi
& Schnell 1986b, 16-25; Adam 1984, 333-336; Richardson 1983, Salza Prina Ricotti 1979, Mau 1908, 262-266;
Overbeck 1884, 244-270.
57