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Did romans love fast food?
Jun 21th, 2007
Source: University of Leicester
"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 has been working on Pompeii for over 20 years. Her previous study was to look at 30 houses in the light of the 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.
"Today we have hundreds of very specific gadgets," she said, "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.
"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."
"In many parts of the western world today, a popular belief exists that family members should sit down and dine together and, if they don't, this may represent a breakdown of the family structure, but that idea did not originate in ancient Rome," she told.
Her claims are based both on what she did not find during the excavation, and what she did.
Allison noticed an unusual lack of tableware and formal dining or kitchen areas within the Pompeii homes. Instead she found isolated plates here and there, such as in sleeping quarters.
"Similar to how children today bring a plate of food to their rooms before watching TV or playing on the computer, my guess is that Roman youths would tote food to certain areas where they possibly engaged in other activities," she said, adding that kids might also have dined with slaves in nanny or caretaker roles.
What she did find in the homes were multiple mini barbecue-type fire boxes, suggesting that "BBQ or fondue-style dining" often took place.
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 asks.
Other finds that have puzzled her are the large quantities of heavy stone weights and scales in houses. "Today everything has its weight written on it when we buy it," she explains, "but in the Roman world everything would have to be weighted coming in and out of the houses.
"Also, where there are a number of looms found in one house, does this imply commercial activity? Not necessarily. We need to think more carefully about the relationship between commercial wool shops and the houses. Did women buy wool from shops and weave for their own household, selling off the surplus? We don’t know, this is not something archaeologists have looked at. Was weaving done by both men and women? We would assume men were involved in any commercial environment, but this is just our conception.
"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."
Stephen Dyson, a professor of classics at the University of Buffalo adds: "We've also found numerous fast food restaurants
in Pompeii and other parts of ancient Rome."
Dyson describes these places very similar to "Burger King and a British pub or a Spanish tapas bar."
Open to the street, each had a large counter with a receptacle in the middle from which food or drink would have been served.
"Most Romans lived in apartments or rather confined spaces, and there is not much evidence for stoves and other cooking
equipment in them," he said.
Dyson thinks "fast food" restaurants became popular because they were plentiful, the same way modern New Yorkers often eat out
due to the panoply of affordable choices. Additionally, many of Rome's and Pompeii's residents, who worked as artisans,
shopkeepers, weavers and such, made enough money to support these places."
Take away food, would also match the energy and flexibility of the ancient Roman mindset.
Dyson said, "Italy's vibrant street and bar scenes today, along with the often multipurpose design of homes with bedsteads
stacked in a corner, or kitchenettes in surprising places, reflect the wonderful, slightly chaotic,
aspects of early Roman life."
The Insula of the Menander in Pompeii vol 3: the finds, a contextual study by Dr Penelope M Allison is published by Oxford University Press. It is part of a five-volume detailed study of one Pompeian city block by the British Pompeii Committee.
Additional Links
"The Insula of the Menander at Pompeii", buy it at on-line library
"The Archaeology of Household Activities", read it as e-book
Images from Pompeii
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