A love note, a gladiatorial combat scene, a barrage of insults and everyday confessions have emerged on a wall in Pompeii, thanks to new imaging technology that has revealed nearly 80 previously unseen inscriptions.
The once-thriving city of Pompeii, near Naples, was buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, preserving buildings, objects and graffiti under metres of ash.
Rediscovered in the 18th century, it is now one of the world’s most significant archaeological sites.
The latest discoveries were found etched into the plaster of a long corridor connecting Pompeii’s theatres to the city’s busy Via Stabiana that was first uncovered more than 230 years ago.
Researchers used a computational photography method known as Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) that captures an object under multiple lighting angles – to expose faint scratches invisible to the naked eye after centuries of erosion.
Archaeologists had not expected fresh discoveries on a surface considered thoroughly documented, but their work identified around 300 inscriptions, including 79 new ones.
The so-called “corridor whispers” project was developed by researchers Louis Autin and Eloïse Letellier-Taillefer of the Sorbonne University in Paris and Marie-Adeline Le Guennec of Quebec University, working with the Pompeii authorities.
“This technology is the key that opens new rooms of the ancient world,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the vast archaeological site, adding that Pompeii’s more than 10,000 known inscriptions form an “immense heritage” of the ancient world.
The team is developing a 3D platform that will combine photogrammetry, RTI data and epigraphic metadata to allow full visualisation and annotation of the graffiti.
Examples of previously known texts include a hurried farewell to a lover — “I am in a hurry. Farewell, my Sava, make sure you love me!”. Another inscription records the devotion of Methe, a slave from Atella, to her beloved Cresto, with a plea for the favour of Venus, the Roman goddess of love.
Among the new discoveries were a faint sketch of two gladiators fighting and the beginnings of a declaration of love — “Erato loves…”