A PUB crawl around every bar in ancient Pompeii has revealed that they were not the dens of iniquity we tend to think they were. Instead, taverns played a vital role in the lives of most residents as a place to eat, drink and socialise.
Steven Ellis of the University of Sydney, Australia, started off by identifying which buildings in Pompeii had been bars. Broad entrances and counters usually indicate shops rather than houses, so he studied these buildings closely for evidence that they had been used to prepare and consume food and drink. Also, from the 2nd century AD, grave reliefs began to depict the work of the buried person. And Ellis was able to use images of bar-keepers at their counters to help identify which shops were pubs.
In total, he found 158. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 quite a lot for a small town of 12,000 to 15,000 people,鈥� he says. The literature suggests that all Roman bars were places for deviants to get drunk. But it seems that they played a much more down-to-earth role in Roman society. 鈥淭his is the first archaeological study of Roman bars, and their role must have been much the same among the other towns of the Roman world,鈥� Ellis adds.
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As well as wine, the bars sold staple foods, such as soups, legumes, dates and dry food. This explains where the 90 to 95 per cent of people in Pompeii who did not have cooking facilities went to eat, Ellis thinks, and suggests that bars were also very important places for socialising.
