Sleeping in Herculaneum: Roman sleeping arrangements in the archaeological sources

One third of the human life is spent sleeping. Sleeping is fundamentally important to the well-being of humans; in order to solve the sleep-related problems, it is crucial to understand how sleeping is arranged in different societies past and present. The major theme within sociohistorical research of sleeping is "that how we sleep, when we sleep, where we sleep, and with whom we sleep, are all influenced by social, cultural and historical factors". The sociohistorical approach to the topography of the Roman house, on the other hand, aims at discovering how different social groups (members of the elite nuclear family, slaves, visitors), used the domestic space, how the spaces and movement within houses were controlled and who, if any, had access to personal privacy. Despite the importance of the subject, in the earlier scholarship on Roman cultural and social history, sleeping is mentioned only occasionally. This paper addresses the settings for sleeping in the Roman households focusing on archaeological data from the houses of Herculaneum, combining it with most essential Latin literature.

The material from Herculaneum yields unique evidence for sleeping and reclining: in the process of the eruption of A.D. 79, the extreme heat of the pyroclastic material carbonized organic material such as wooden beds, rendering it durable enough to survive. Beds and bed fragments with known provenance have been recorded in 27 Herculaneum houses, allowing an exceptional possibility to study the sleeping patterns of the inhabitants of this town. Analyzed together with structural remains and other finds, such as lamps found in the bedrooms, the Herculaneum bed remains offer understanding of Roman every-day (or in this case every-night) life with unparalleled precision.

A thorough re-evaluation of this archaeological material contests the views of the use of space and multi-functionality of Roman houses, that have prevailed in previous scholarship. I will show in my paper that the rooms in Roman houses were not such multi- purpose spaces without function-based division as has been presented in various studies (see, e.g., Allison 2004, Leach 1997 and 2004, Nevett 1997, Van Oyen 2020). My paper will also show that setting aside private, individual, and permanent spaces for sleeping was typical to ancient Roman culture and sleeping could not take place wherever one felt like it, but Roman sleeping was confined to permanent bedrooms. However, the analysis also reveals that social hierarchies played a major part in sleeping arrangements, and the possibility to sleep in private and peaceful bedchambers was a privilege of the elite.