Artifacts

This bronze dining couch with restored wooden parts, a detail of which is shown here, was found in the House of the Menander in Pompeii. It would have been used in the dining room, or triclinium, which draws its name from the three couches that customarily furnished the room. The Romans reclined on these couches as they ate their meals.

The wooden artifacts and architectural components of Pompeii did not survive the eruption and ensuing centuries of burial. Interestingly enough, a large number of wooden items did survive at Herculaneum. The characteristics of the eruption of Vesuvius differed from site to site— Pompeii was buried in ash, allowing the organic materials to decay, while superheated pyroclastic surges roared through Herculaneum, vaporizing the liquid in the wood and causing carbonization.