Perceptions of Domestic Space in Roman Italy

Abstract

Abstract The wealth of the material evidence uncovered at Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Ostia offers an almost unparalleled opportunity to explore the domestic life of a past society through archaeological evidence. Indeed, Pompeii has sometimes been held up by archaeologists working on other societies as the site that exemplifies their ideals in terms of the manner of its destruction and the exceptional standard of preservation (the ‘Pompeii premise’, cf. Allison 1992a: passim). Yet despite all the advantages offered by this material, in many ways it has yet to be exploited to its full potential, and, in particular, our knowledge of patterns of activity within individual dwellings remains surprisingly poor, even for the atrium house, which has been the subject of the most extensive research. In this chapter it is argued that, in conjunction with study of the archaeological evidence, an alternative approach to the use of literary sources for activity in the Roman household in general, and in urban houses in particular, can help us to construct a clearer and more detailed picture of Roman attitudes to spatial organization and of some of the factors that helped to shape domestic space in different types of dwelling.