Twenty-one of the properties in this study had a counter but not a facility to cook or prepare heated food. Because of this lack of cooking facilities and the evidence of certain finds within some of these Type B properties, they have been identified by generations of Pompeian scholars as shops for certain goods and services other than food and drink: 1.20.2 as a pottery or lamp shop (see Eschebach and Müller-Trollius 1993, 80-1); VII.3.13 as a blacksmith (see Eschebach and Müller-Trollius 1993, 267-8); VII.7.11 as a shop for a craftsman working in bone and ivory (see Eschebach and Müller-Trollius 1993, 301-2); and VIII.4.51-52 as an olive oil retailer (Eschebach and Müller-Trollius 1993, 379). Such businesses remind us of the utilitarian nature of the masonry sales counter. Even so, these examples form a minority among the shops at Pompeii, with countless shopkeepers choosing not to retail from behind a masonry counter. These shopkeepers may have retailed from a wooden counter, of course, as will be discussed in section 7.1. The table in Figure 38 summarises the quantities and average areas of all Type B properties at Pompeii, and is further defined by the same spatial criteria as with the Type A properties (given the dearth of B.1.H and B.2.H bars, their average area is combined accordingly with Types B.1 and B.2).
Figure 38: Quantitites and average areas of Type B properties at Pompeii (with sub-types).
| Type | Number | % of all Type A | Average Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| B.1 | 4 | 19% | 21m² |
| B.1.H | 1 | 5% | |
| B.2 | 9 | 43% | 42m² |
| B.2.H | 3 | 14% | |
| B.3 | 4 | 19% | 50m² |
| B.4 | 0 | - | - |
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Last updated: Mon Jun 30 2008