Bakery (VII,2,22)
The ‘bakery’ may have belonged to N. Popidius Priscus, who lived in the house next door, n. 20, and who managed it through a libertus. Typical features of the 34 bakeries identified in Pompeii are the wood-burning oven, similar to those used today, and the millstones (here there are four, plus a smaller one) made of hard, porous lava stone, which did not leave fragments in the flour (dangerous to one’s teeth!). The millstones are made up of a tapered block (meta) fastened to a brick base, around which turned an hourglass-shaped element (catillus), tied with a bar to the mule that forced it to turn. The grain was poured into the catillus and ground as the two blocks rubbed together. This bakery is missing a sales counter: it probably sold its products wholesale, or through peddlers (libarii). The use of bread became widespread among the Romans during the 2nd cent. BC: previously, flour was primarily used to prepare puls, a wheat mush.
