The main objective of this excavation is to gain a better understanding of the structures associated with production in the workshops situated at the south-eastern corner of insula VI 16, in order to integrate them into the general understanding of the development of Pompeii’s production system.

In workshop VI 16, 5, excavation only took place in the first room, and was limited to the southern half due to the presence of two modern channels for draining water from the peristyle of the nearby House of the Golden Cherubs.

The first occupation traces date, at the earliest, to the 2nd century B.C. Soon afterwards, when the peristyle of the House of the Golden Cherubs was built in the 1st century B.C., a drainage channel crossed the room, which at the time was a shop, as attested by the threshold. In order to raise the floor level of this shop, an ironworking workshop was dismantled and the soil transported to VI 16, 5. After having an independent entrance throughout the 1st century, in the first century A.D. the shop opened towards VI 16, 3-4. During the same phase, a second channel, to date of unknown origin, crossed the entire room.

Once the damage from the 62/63 A.D. earthquake was repaired, the shop was again independent with the creation of an apartment on the first floor, entered from the shop via a staircase up against the north wall. A cistern was built during the same phase. The only clearly identified activity was the making, in the 70s A.D., of a clibanus for baking unleavened bread.