New perspective on Pompeii life

 

It was a life of wealth and prosperity in ancient Pompeii but not as we know it, according to new archaeological findings by the University of Leicester.

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The Roman city of Pompeii, discovered accidentally in 1748, was known for its examples of art in a town suddenly destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

But now, University of Leicester archaeologist Dr Penelope Allison has changed this emphasis in a contextual study published in her book The Insula of the Menander in Pompeii vol 3.

"I am looking at pots and pans and how houses actually functioned," she said.

"I am interested in revealing the utilitarian side of life rather than its glamorous side; in slaves and servants and how they lived side by side with their masters. We always assume that servants were kept out of sight, but this is a 19th century view.

"If we look at the distribution of domestic material in Pompeii houses, such as the cupboards where pots and pans were kept, we find they were in the main front hall, the atrium where visitors would be received.

"The same is true of the main household water supply. Slaves would be coming to get these things all the time and would be far from invisible," Dr Allison added.

Working on the Pompeii site for over 20 years, Dr Allison’s previous study was to look at 30 houses focusing on everyday objects that had been largely ignored in favour of more exotic finds.

She became fascinated by what the actual objects might have been used for and who might have used them.

Multi-use objects

"Today we have hundreds of very specific gadgets, but in a non-gadget world you have a number of things used for a variety of purposes, such as pots that might have been wine dippers and spindle whorls that were used as furniture ornamentation," she explained.

"Also, we assume we know about doctors in the Roman world. We believe that whenever we find medical instruments they belonged to doctors. But I think that a lot more high-level first aid went on within households.

"We have found surgical instruments in domestic contexts and I think someone in the house was responsible for sewing up injured people. Nowadays we have a much more specialised approach to looking after the human body."

Dr Allison also speculates on the amount of cooking that went on in the huge kitchens in affluent Roman households.

"I found little braziers and flat vessels that were burned underneath that might have been used round the house, more like our barbecues, indicating that food was heated up in front of diners," she revealed.

"Maybe Roman cooking smells did not offend these diners."

The implications of her research and recent book stretch beyond Pompeii itself, to how other Roman sites can be interpreted.

Because of the suddenness of its destruction, Pompeii offers a context for the artefacts that are found in a way that virtually no other site can do.

She has been looking at objects found in the same room and speculating on what that suggests in terms of usage of such objects.

"For instance, why were this plate and these lamps found together? Were they indicative of some kind of offering? What were the lamps for? What was the situation that brought them together, and how would you have lit this space?" she asked.

"We are taking Roman domestic life into a more intellectual realm," Dr Allison said, adding a caution: "Domestic life in the past was not necessarily the same as it is nowadays."

Dr Allison’s book is part of a five-volume detailed study of one Pompeian city block by the British Pompeii Committee.

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