Comparing household spaces in Pompeii and Herculaneum
Investigate entrances, room connections and possible household activities using two published archaeological plans. Separate visible evidence from interpretations and explain what a floor plan cannot establish.
Plans to use alongside this worksheet
Use Plan A: House of Menander, Pompeii, I.10.4, and Plan B: House of the Wooden Furniture, Herculaneum, V.5. Open the linked plans below while completing the sheet, or use separately supplied copies where reproduction is permitted. This worksheet does not reproduce the plans or assert permission to copy them.
Plan A: House of Menander provides a room-numbered plan and links to photographs of different areas. Its notes explain that room numbering varies between publications.
Plan B: House of the Wooden Furniture presents two plans with different numbering systems. For this exercise, use the first plan, identified as the numbering used on the site’s V.5 page; the accompanying reference is to Amedeo Maiuri’s 1958 publication, figure 203. Record this choice on your sheet.
These are modern representations of excavated buildings. A drawn wall or opening is evidence to inspect; a room name is an interpretation to check against the accompanying documentation. Compare these two buildings without treating either as representative of every household in its town.
Household spaces: evidence and comparison
Name: ____________________ Class: ____________________ Date: ____________________
Enquiry: How might the arrangement of rooms have affected movement, work and encounters within these two households? Use the linked plans alongside this sheet. Keep observations, source labels and your own inferences separate.
1. Identify and check your evidence
Plan A — House of Menander, Pompeii, I.10.4. Record the plan title, publisher or website, URL, credited plan-maker if stated, and the room-numbering system used: ____________________________________________________________
Plan B — House of the Wooden Furniture, Herculaneum, V.5. Use the first plan on the linked page. Record its title, URL, credited publication and numbering system: ____________________________________________________________
For each plan, check for a scale, orientation arrow, legend, floor level and indications of reconstruction or missing fabric. Write 'not stated' where necessary. Do not infer that the top of the page is north or compare building sizes from differently sized images.
Plan A checks: ____________________________________________________________
Plan B checks: ____________________________________________________________
2. Trace movement through each building
Identify a street entrance supported by the plan or its documentation. Trace a possible route from it to an interior space. List every numbered room, corridor or opening crossed. If an entrance or connection is uncertain, mark it with a question mark and explain why.
Plan A route and evidence: ____________________________________________________________
Plan B route and evidence: ____________________________________________________________
Choose one junction or doorway in each route. How might it affect access? Distinguish a possible route from proof of who actually used it. A plan alone does not establish whether a door was open, locked or screened.
Response: ____________________________________________________________________________
3. Compare spaces using precise references
| Feature to investigate | Plan A: observation and locator | Plan B: observation and locator |
|---|---|---|
| Entrance and its connections | ____________________ | ____________________ |
| Space connecting several rooms | ____________________ | ____________________ |
| Possible open-air space; state how identified | ____________________ | ____________________ |
| Possible activity area; distinguish source label from inference | ____________________ | ____________________ |
4. From a room arrangement to everyday life
Choose one activity to investigate: preparing food, storing goods, receiving visitors or moving supplies. Suggest where or how it might have occurred in one building. Cite a plan locator, explain your reasoning, offer an alternative interpretation and name additional evidence that could help decide between them. Do not assign a room to a particular gender, age group or legal status from its shape alone.
Activity and building: ____________________ Observation and locator: ____________________
Inference: ____________________________________________________________________________
Alternative explanation: ______________________________________________________________
Evidence needed, such as documented finds, installations or excavation records: ____________________
5. Write a qualified comparison
Write one similarity and one difference supported by specific locations in both plans. Explain a possible implication for household activity. Finish with a limitation concerning preservation, plan conventions, changing room use or the small sample of buildings.
Similarity and evidence: ______________________________________________________________
Difference and evidence: ______________________________________________________________
Possible implication: _________________________________________________________________
Limitation: ___________________________________________________________________________
Teaching guidance
Before the activity, make both linked plans available and confirm that students can read their room identifiers. Use the same version of each plan throughout the class. If no scale is available, compare connections rather than measured areas.
Evaluate the quality of the evidence and reasoning: identifiable plan references, accurate separation of observation and interpretation, a plausible alternative and an explicit limitation. There is no fixed answer key: proposed activities require supporting evidence beyond room shape. A feature absent from a drawing should be described as ‘not shown on this plan’, rather than assumed never to have existed.
For background reading, see daily life in Pompeii before 79 CE and daily life in Herculaneum before 79 CE.