The marble-clad surfaces of the numerous bars or shops (so-called thermopolium) of Pompeii and Herculaneum are a vast and hitherto untapped source of information about marble use beyond the confines of public building and elite houses. Since the 1800’s four field seasons of survey work have documented 49 bars at Pompeii and eight at Herculaneum, a few dozen public and private bath houses with over 20,000,000 pieces of stone, mainly marble.

The types of stones and marbles that were used on these bars were a combination of local marbles that looked like the elegant Carrara and Oro Nerro marbles used in Rome in order to project a bit of status symbol so the Roman elites that were vacationing in Pompei would feel as if they were back home.