The graffiti of Pompeii brought to light by science

Love, sex, insults, drawings... These messages are well known to the research team led by Eloïse Letellier-Taillefer and Louis Autin (Sorbonne University) and Marie-Adeline Le Guennec (Quebec University at Montreal).

"These graffiti are incised with different types of sharp tools into the painted plaster, which was the usual decoration of all the interior walls," Eloïse Letellier-Taillefer explained to AFP. "Over time, this plaster deteriorates and reading the graffiti today is not easy," she emphasized.

By relying on a technological innovation that allows them to capture even the slightest relief of these traces, the researchers - supported by numerous international institutions and with the collaboration of the archaeological park of Pompeii - are working to place them back in their spatial context, to benefit research and the general public.

In 2022, the team had already immersed themselves in the 27 m long, 3 m wide and 8 m high corridor uncovered in 1794. "This campaign allowed us to spot, read, decipher, and find graffiti that had already been observed before us," says Eloïse Letellier-Taillefer.

"But on that occasion, while working with flashlights, we also saw that raking light was necessary for the close observation of these graffiti. And we discovered a large number of new graffiti that had never been read before us, texts and images," she adds.

In total, 79 new graffiti have been added to the corpus of messages established at the beginning of the 19th century.

But how could we "visually show the results of our research? We were struggling to do that," she explains.

15.000 pictures

They then decided to use Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), a technological innovation notably brought to fruition by the company Mercurio Imaging: "it is a photographic technique which allows us to have 2D images, but with an extra dimension, namely light," explains Eloi Gattet, the founder of the company, to AFP.

"It allows you to take re-illuminated photographs, as if you had a flashlight, and to capture micro-reliefs. It's between photography and 3D," he adds.

While the technique is known for works of art, it had never been used on such a large scale, on entire sections of walls.

For five nights last September, researchers and technical teams from Mercurio Imaging photographed and digitized the corridor with a device surrounded by multiple lights forming a dome.

Nearly 15.000 images were taken, covering both walls.

This will culminate in the completion of the "Rumors" project and the launch of an online platform allowing users to view the graffiti (www.bdc-pompei.com). Initially reserved for researchers, it will be opened to the general public in the coming weeks.

Gladiators

This will be an opportunity to discover this declaration of love "Erato amat..." (Erato loves...), without knowing who the chosen one is. "The piece of plaster on which the graffiti was has fallen, unfortunately we will never know who is loved," explains Marie-Adeline Le Guennec.

"One should not always expect poetic, highly literary statements. There are also many insults that use sexual vocabulary," explains Louis Autin, who emphasizes "the diversity of the drawings. They are extremely rich and detailed."

For example, this extraordinary graffito, incredibly full of life, depicting two gladiators facing each other in full motion.

"The graphic skill of the people who left these drawings is still impressive," marvel the researchers, who remain cautious about the identity of these amateur artists: "people who did not go to the theatre because they do not talk about it, soldiers passing through... Our approach is to give very scrupulous scientific attention to these inscriptions in order to make them objects of popular culture history," they emphasize.