VII.6.2 Pompeii. Thermopolium or shop with two-sided selling counter.
Excavated 1760, 1910.
According to Garcia y Garcia Region VII, Insula VI was one of the insulae most devastated over the years since its excavation.
He calls it the “Cinderella” of Pompeii. Between the years 1759 and 1762 it was vandalised and stripped by the Bourbons, then re-interred.
Then came the slow and non-systematic uncovering again before the final destruction in September 1943.
The area was ignored and abandoned during the years following the war, which reduced the insula to a heap of bricks and masonry.
See Garcia y
Garcia, L., 2006. Danni di guerra a Pompei. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider. (p.102).
VII.6.1-6 – Diversi aditi in gran parte
obliterati, che trovansi sulla fronte settentrionale dell’isola a comminciare
da occidente, sembrano aver l’ingresso a tre botteghe, ad una casa, e a due
gradinate indipendenti per cenacoli sovrapposti.
(VII.6.1-6 – Several
entrances in large part obliterated that were found on the north side of the
insula beginning on the west side, they seemed to be the entrances to three
shops, to a house, and to two independent steps leading to rooms above.)
See Pappalardo, U., 2001. La Descrizione di Pompei per Giuseppe Fiorelli (1875). Napoli: Massa Editore. (p.159).
According to NdS, VII.6.2 was the entrance to a shop that had the usual L-shaped brick sales-bench, with a bricked-in terracotta dolia. The walls of the shop preserved scant remains of stucco, with traces of simple decoration on the clear/white plaster background. In (a), under the stairs, (the stairs of VII.6.1 in the south-west corner) is a recess built into the exterior wall surrounding all of the insula, and that formed the kitchen of the shop. Found in this kitchen was a terracotta jar (pitcher) with three spouts, 0.18m high, (734: 20th May 1910) and a rustic terracotta pan chipped in the rim and measuring 0.28m in diameter (735).
See Notizie degli Scavi, 1910, p.439.
VII.6.2
Pompeii. October 2023. Looking south towards entrance doorway between
masonry pilasters.
Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
VII.6.2 Pompeii. September 2021. Looking south
towards entrance doorway between masonry pilasters. Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
VII.6.2 and 1 Pompeii. May 2011. Looking south towards entrance doorways.
The entrance to the bar at VII.6.2 would have been between the brick pillars visible near the pavement.
The entrance has been infilled. Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.
VII.6.2 Pompeii. May 2005. Entrance which has been bricked up and closed.
VII.6.1 and 2 Pompeii. About 1834. Sketch by Mazois.
Looking west to the end of the Via delle Terme, where it joins Vicolo del Farmacista.
The entrance to the thermopolium is shown on the left.
7.6.1/2 Pompeii. W.1514. Looking north towards side (exterior west) wall at side of VII.6.1 on Vicolo del Farmacista.
The large square structure, on the right, would appear to be the recess built out from the exterior wall, forming the kitchen of VII.6.2.
On the left would be the corner pilaster of VI.4.11 or VI.4.12 (depending on whose plan) on Via delle Terme.
Photo by Tatiana
Warscher. Photo © Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Abteilung Rom, Arkiv.