IX.5.16 Pompeii. Popina/Lupanare.

Rooms a’ to f’ on plan. Linked to IX.5.14 and IX.5.15.

Part 1      Part 2      Part 3      Part 4      Part 5

IX.5.14-16 combined room plan       For rooms a to u see IX.5.14.      For room h see IX.5.15

Façade and entrance

IX.6 Pompeii, on left. April 2019.   Unnamed roadway looking west.      IX.5.16, on right.

Looking west from junction with Vicolo del Centenario. Photo courtesy of Rick Bauer.

IX.5.16 Pompei. December 2018.

Looking west towards entrance doorway, in unnamed vicolo between IX.6, on left, and IX.5, on right. Photo courtesy of Aude Durand.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. Wall of front façade on east side of entrance doorway.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. East side of entrance doorway.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. Looking north through entrance doorway.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. West side of entrance doorway.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. Front façade on west side of entrance doorway.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. Front façade wall, continuing towards the west from entrance doorway.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. Front façade, continuing towards the west.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. Front façade, continuing westwards.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. Front façade, continuing westwards.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. Upper front façade, continuing westwards.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. Lower front façade, continuing westwards.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. West end of front façade.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017.

Looking east along front façade on unnamed vicolo between IX.5 and IX.6.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.6 Pompeii, on left. September 2005.         Unnamed roadway looking west.                         IX.5.16, on right.

IX.6 Pompeii, on left. May 2006. Unnamed roadway looking west, with south exterior wall of IX.5.16, on right.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. May 2005. Entrance doorway.

An inscription was found on the outside wall, it read –

Optata

verna a(ssibus) II    [CIL IV 5105]

This translates as “Optata sells herself for 2 asses”   [CIL IV 5105]

See Varone, A., 2002. Erotica Pompeiana: Love Inscriptions on the Walls of Pompeii, Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider. (p.144, note 243)

IX.5.16 Pompeii. May 2005. Entrance doorway.

Room a’, atrium

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017.

Room a’, looking south to remains of hearth on east side of entrance doorway, on right.

The doorway to room b’ is on the left.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. Room a’, looking west across atrium towards room e’, kitchen.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2018. Looking towards west side of atrium a’.

Foto Taylor Lauritsen, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017.

Room a’, looking west across atrium towards doorway into room e’, on left, and room f’, in centre.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. Room a’, site of impluvium in atrium, looking west.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. Room a’, looking north-west across atrium towards doorway into room f’, in centre.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. Room a’, looking north across atrium towards doorway leading into room i, of IX.5.14.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017.

Room a’, looking north-east across atrium towards doorway into east ala, c’, (on right), with doorway in its north wall into triclinium d’.

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. March 2017. Room a’, looking south across impluvium in atrium towards entrance doorway. 

Foto Christian Beck, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. May 2006. Looking south across atrium a’ and impluvium.

In the top left corner were the remains of a hearth for warming food and drinks, with a doorway to servants’ room b’.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. May 2006. Looking north across impluvium in atrium a’.

The floor of the atrium would have been made of a type of opus Signinum.

The impluvium was a basin (1.85 x 1.40) surrounded by a small masonry wall around 0.35 high at the outside, 0.52 inside.

In the upper part was a hollow for planting flowers and it was covered with red plaster, on the inside of which were painted scenes of fighting pygmies with crocodiles and hippopotamus.

See Mau in Bullettino dell’Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica (DAIR), 1879, (p.207).

On the west side were two, armed, pygmies, one fighting with a crocodile, the other following a hippopotamus.

On the north side was a boat with two pygmies, a man and a woman, quoted by Mau as obscene: another pygmy, standing at the stern and armed with javelins, was frightened at the sight of a crocodile chasing the boat.

On the east side were two fighting pygmies, between them was a woman with a harp in her hands, nearby was an ibis.

On the south side were two aquatic birds.

The “obscene” painting on the north side would have been in full view of all entering the entrance doorway at number 16.

See Mau in Bullettino dell’Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica (DAIR), 1879, (p.265)

IX.5.16 Pompeii. May 2006. Part of north side of impluvium in atrium a’.

IX.5.16 Pompeii. May 2006. Circular tufa stone in centre of impluvium in atrium a’.

Part 1      Part 2      Part 3      Part 4      Part 5

IX.5.14-16 combined room plan       For rooms a to u see IX.5.14.      For room h see IX.5.15