Pompeii: international research project sheds light on unseen ancient graffiti

Declarations of love, insults, sketches of gladiator fights, portraits, drawings of animals and boats: these are just some of the fragments of everyday life engraved on the walls of Pompeii two millennia ago. Although many of these incised inscriptions have now disappeared, the ‘theatre corridor’, which provided access to the city's two theatres, is still home to several hundred inscriptions, some of which are difficult to read. Using this ancient corpus, an international research project is now transforming the way we read these ancient inscriptions with the help of innovative digital technology. 

The ‘Bruits de couloir’ (or Corridor whispers) project is coordinated by Louis Autin (Sorbonne University, Institut Universitaire de France), Éloïse Letellier-Taillefer (Sorbonne University) and Marie-Adeline Le Guennec (Université du Québec à Montréal). The project provides a comprehensive reinterpretation of nearly 300 inscriptions, 79 of which had never been seen before, including a declaration of love and a drawing depicting two gladiators. 

The project has major implications for both science and heritage. On the one hand, it aims to provide a better understanding of forms of social interaction, popular culture and the appropriation of public space in ancient Pompeii. On the other hand, the project plays a key role in the preservation and promotion of these fragile artefacts, which are threatened by time and outdoor conservation conditions.

To achieve this and understand these inscriptions as a coherent whole, the researchers adopted an innovative approach, combining epigraphy, archaeology, philology and digital humanities. Several weeks were first devoted to locating and identifying each inscription on the two walls of the corridor, followed by their description, translation and recording in a database. In order to rediscover the inscriptions’ interactive nature, the team worked attentively to find potential links between them.

During the second stage of analysis, photogrammetric coverage was carried out, in addition to the use of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), which had never been undertaken on this scale. This technique consists of digitally modelling an object which is successively illuminated by variable raking lights, helping to unveil incisions in the stone which are almost invisible to the naked eye. These methods were made possible thanks to a partnership with Éloi Gattet, founder of Mercurio Imaging, and have profoundly changed the way these texts and images are analysed, whilst ensuring that they are digitally preserved on a platform which will in time allow for all of these inscriptions to be read, recorded and annotated.
 

The results have shed light on a public space that was very much used by the city's inhabitants and other visitors who walked its streets two thousand years ago; a place of exchange, emotional expression and diverse forms of discourse, not unlike the walls of our cities and public buildings today, or even social media. Graffiti appears to be an essential source of information in understanding how urban spaces were used and, more broadly, in analysing the culture of the inhabitants of an Italian city like any other.

This project opens up new possibilities for research into Ancient Rome. The upcoming digital platform will allow both researchers and the general public to explore these graffiti inscriptions and find out more about the project’s initial results. The Parco Archeologico di Pompei is also preparing a protection for the corridor to ensure its preservation and allow for an enhanced visitor experience, using the technology developed through the research.
 

 
Find out more: 

• Link to the article published in the e-Journal degli Scavi di Pompei (in English and Italian). 
• Link to the Bruits de couloir project platform (available soon). 
• Link to a previous article on the start of the project, published in the Bulletin archéologique des Ecoles françaises à l’étranger (in French).