After 2000 years, graffiti on the walls of Pompeii re-emerges

A love story of a woman named Erato (Erato amat, i.e. ‘Erato loves…’). A fight between gladiators. Moments and feelings fixed on a wall in the theater district,graffitisimilar to those we see today along the street walls.Stories of loveimages, insults, sporting incitements that are resurfacing aPompeii thanks to technology.

The walls are those in thepassage corridorwhich connected the theater area of ​​the ancient imperial city to thevia Stabiana. A wall dug over 230 years ago, past which millions of visitors have passed every year and from which nothing new was expected. Instead, through the use ofcutting-edge research methodologiesthey almost emerge300 registrationsbetween those already known for some time (about 200) and the newly identified ones (79).

New stories from the “Bruits de couloir” project

The project is called ‘Hallway noises‘ (rumors) and was created by Louis Autin and Éloïse Letellier-Taillefer of the Sorbonne University, and Marie-Adeline Le Guennec, of the University of Quebec in Montréal, in collaboration with thePompeii archaeological park. It was carried out in two campaigns in 2022 and 2025. The result was an overall rereading of the vast testimony ofgraffitipresent in this passage environment, through amultidisciplinary approach che combina epigraphyarchaeology, philology anddigital humanities.

Examples of daily life and social interactions

“I’m in a hurry; take care of me, my Sava, make me love you!”. “Miccio-cio-cio, you broke your father’s stomach while he was shitting; look at how Miccio is doing!“. “Methe, (slave) of Cominia, of Atella, loves Cresto in her heart. That the Venus of Pompeii is propitious to both and that they always live in harmony”, are some examples, among those already previously known, which attest to thevitalitythe multiplicity ofinteractions e delle forms of socialitywhich developed into onepublic spaceso frequented byinhabitants of ancient Pompeii.

The importance of technology for protection

“La technologyit is the key that opens new rooms for usancient worldand we also have to tell the public about those rooms. We are working on a projectprotection and valorizationof the writings, which are beyond Pompeii10milaan immense heritage. Only the use of technology can guarantee a future for all of thismemory of the life lived in Pompeii“, explains the Park director,Gabriel breeding bar.

The rti technique and digital preservation

La methodology adopteduses a virtual grid, documents spatial and thematic links between inscriptions, and analyzes the corridor walls withRTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging, tecnica di computational photographywhich acquires a series of images of an object under different lighting directions), making visible what the naked eye cannot see. More than two centuries after the excavation, they still emergenovelty. Furthermore, this technique is fundamental fordigital preservationof a collection of testimonies that are fragile in themselves.

3D platform and future of the visit to Pompeii

The development of one3D platform che integri photogrammetryRTI data and epigraphic metadata will lead to the creation of a new tool for joint visualization and annotation of inscriptions. To best promote theconservationof this important complex of attestationsPompeian epigraphsconcentrated in a single environment, brought to light in 1794, thePompeii Archaeological Parkhas planned the construction of onecorridor coverageto finally allow adequate protection of the plasters on which the inscriptions were engraved, and to encourage futureintegrated visit experiencewith the help oftechnologiesdeveloped by new research.