Art in Roman Life: Villa to Grave opened at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art on Saturday, September 19, 2003. Five rooms of the second floor of the museum have been reconstructed as representative rooms of a Roman house. Each room contains sculpture, frescoes, coins, vases, furniture, glass, jewelry, or other household items that would have been used there by the Romans. Here are a few photos of the exhibit itself.

After passing through a public honorific area with larger than life busts of Roman emperors, one enters an atrium with a mosaic impluvium and a shrine to the household gods.

Here is a close-up of the lararium, the shrine to the household gods.

After passing through the tablinum (reception area) and the cubicula (bedrooms), one reaches the triclinium (dining room). In the center of the picture you can see the couches on which Romans would have reclined while eating while the rest of the room includes objects used for meals and for entertainment afterwards.

The culina (kitchen) reveals a typical Roman kitchen, and featuring a cooking surface above the three niches for storing firewood, plus pots and pans used for cooking.

Click here to see photos of the Roman Street Fair.