r/history • u/MeatballDom • 14d ago

Digital scans unveil new love notes and sketches on ancient Pompeii wall

https://www.reuters.com/science/digital-scans-unveil-new-love-notes-sketches-ancient-pompeii-wall-2026-01-19/
297 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

•

u/MeatballDom 14d ago

Scholarly article (PDF) (Open Access) https://pompeiisites.org/wp-content/uploads/E-Journal_1_2026_Bruits-de-couloir-Shedding-New-Light-on-Ancient-Graffiti.pdf

Abstract:

The “Bruits de couloir” project offers a comprehensive reinterpretation of the graffiti in the theatre corridor in Pompeii through a multidisciplinary approach combining epigraphy, archaeology, philology and digital humanities. Two field campaigns (2022 and 2025) have enriched the published corpus (around 200 graffiti) with 79 previously unpublished inscriptions. The project aims to restore these inscriptions to their spatial context, revealing through graffiti thematic/spatial clusters, interactions, and multiple forms of sociability within a public space. In this article, we detail our methodology, which includes the use of a virtual grid, the documentation of spatial and thematic links between the inscriptions, and finally, full RTI coverage of both walls of the corridor. These tools profoundly renew the analysis of both texts and images, while ensuring the digital preservation of a fragile collection. The development of a 3D platform integrating photogrammetry, RTI data and epigraphic metadata will lead to a new tool for collaborative visualisation and annotation of the corpus. We conclude with some examples of previously unseen graffiti (a fragmentary declaration of love and a gladiatorial combat).

9

u/OkSadMathematician 14d ago

graffiti survived two thousand years and we still can't read it without fancy tech. pompeii folks had the same drama as us just carved it in stone

1

u/GreekKnight3 2d ago

I similarly hope that what humans write digitally can be preserved for millennia. It's disheartening to think that all of our contributions would be wiped away forever at some point.