Felt Shop of Verecundus (IX.7.5-7), Pompeii
This app gives users the experience of walking down a stretch of the via dell’ Abbondanza, one of Pompeii’s busiest thoroughfares, and browsing goods in a Roman textile shop.
Overview
Map of Pompeii showing location of shop.
Shop located on the via dell’Abbondanza.
Excavation and preservation with image from Pompeii Perspectives.
Download Coming Soon!
Shop Façade Decoration
Production
The shop front was decorated with a scene depicting the felt making process. At the end of the scene, the shop owner Verecundus proudly displays a finished toga praetexta.
Consumption
Although the shop was not completely excavated, a shop scene on the façade may offer some insight into how the interior space may have been organized. The fresco shows a female shopkeeper sitting behind a wooden shop counter, holding up slippers for the customer to inspect. The customer sits on an ornate wooden bench with his arm stretched out in a gesture of negotiation. In front of the shopkeeper, a second wooden table draped with a fine blue table cloth contains a neatly organized display of felt slippers and folded piles of clothing, including examples of the toga praetexta. An open cabinet behind the shopkeeper displays more wares.
Shop Full of Gods
The shop front is also decorated with religious imagery. A fresco depicting Mercury, the patron god of trade and commerce, and a processional scene of Venus Pompeiana, the patron deity of Pompeii.
Shopping for Status
In development
Fish Shops off the Bivio del Castrum, Ostia
We are in the research and planning phase for the development of a new VR app that will allow users to explore competing fish shops located off the busy Bivio del Castrum intersection in Ostia in the 3rd century CE. The Taberne dei Pescivendoli (IV.V.1) connected to the macellum (IV.V.2) and the shop inside the Caseggiato del Mosaico del Porto (I.XIV.2) were both decorated with black and white marine mosaics and contained marble basins for keeping live fish.
Overview
More information coming soon!
Plan of the fish shops (IV.V.1) in top right and macellum. After SO I. 
The western fish shop (IV.V.1), seen from the north-east. Photo: Daniel González Acuña. 
The eastern fish shop (IV.V.1), seen from the south-west. Photo: Klaus Heese. 
Detail of the threshold mosaic with text in the fish shop (IV.V.1). Photo: Klaus Heese. 
Plan of the Caseggiato del Mosaico del Porto (I.XIV.2). From Mar 1996, fig. 15. 
General view of the harbour mosaic from the fish shop (I.XIV.2). Note the marble basin. From SO IV, Tav. CLXI. 
Fish shop (I.XIV.2) with the port mosaic and marble basin, seen from the south-west. Photo: Daniel González Acuña.