I wanted a pretty picture of an arca for a slide for an upcoming talk.
That got me to Pompeii and the house of Obellius. There are many more picture after that link. Of this yummy artifact.
I got to this very useful map and discussion of the phenomenon in this very fun 2022 publication. I worried the author has left academia. I hope not, I’d love to compare notes.
A good image of one of the platform’s with a iron spike from the house of the faun
My desire is look at all the dimensions of these chests. I think this would be a good indication of the typical amount of ready cash one would have on hand. Of course multiple boxes are present in Pompeian houses and we can imagine even more would be found in the wealthiest houses. Andersson in the article I mention above makes the excellent point that there are some very wealthy houses where there is no physical remaining evidence of a money box at least of the type that were anchored to the ground and thus we must presume other storage approaches.
More images if one follows links.
VII.4.57 box (with images of platform to anchor it in the house)
Another with no surviving images of components
