Kitchens and dining rooms at Pompeii: The spatial and social relationship of cooking to eating in the Roman household. (Volumes I and II).

Abstract

The physical, environmental, decorative, and ritual arrangements for cooking and dining are documented in a large sample of residences from six contiguous insulae at Pompeii. The descriptions, measurements, photographs, and plans will prove an invaluable resource for Pompeian archaeologists and architects, and historians of Roman domestic life and foodways. An analysis of this archaeological evidence shows how residents organized domestic space for the purposes of taking their daily meals. The units of analysis are groups of buildings carefully defined by architectural criteria, and which represent the place of their occupants along the socio-economic spectrum of the community. Against a background of ancient literature and modern scholarship, I investigate how meals structured Roman social relationships. The preparation and consumption of meals in Pompeii and the Roman world acted as a social barometer. Larger households had larger, better decorated, and more numerous dining areas, and a larger cooking capacity than smaller households. Larger households not only had more mouths to feed, but their dinners were social occasions to which guests were invited, and at which status was evaluated. In order to impress their guests, cultivate social ties and reinforce their position, owners constructed arrays of dining areas that were environmentally moderated, highly decorated and had views onto gardens and water-play. The number and size of dining areas, the expense given over to their elaboration, the physical distance between dining and cooking areas, and the social distance between free and slave household members all decreased toward the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum. In larger households, intra-household social distinctions between slave and free were highlighted and formalized at dinner. Kitchens were located far from dining areas, and sections of the largest houses were reserved for slaves to cook and eat their food. In the smallest shops, eating and cooking were done informally in the same space, with no contingency for mealtime social interaction with outside guests--company was enjoyed at neighborhood meeting places, over the snacks and drinks of lunch counters and diners. In sum, socially proximate individuals tended to eat together, in environments that befit their status.