Cutting-edge technology has revealed previously unseen graffiti on a backstreet in Pompeii. A sketch of two gladiators in combat and the beginnings of a love declaration are among the 2,000-year-old fragments that have emerged.

The 90-foot walled corridor that runs through Pompeii’s theater district has long fascinated archaeologists thanks to the huge number of graffiti scrawled over its walls. Though the wall was first excavated over 230 years, many of these carved inscriptions and drawings are only just coming to light now thanks to Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI). The computational photography technique captures an object under different lighting conditions to reveal surface information that is otherwise hidden from the naked eye.

In a paper for Pompeii’s e-journal, researchers from the Sorbonne University in Paris and the University of Québec in Montréal detailed how they developed a 3D-image platform that combined the RTI data with photogrammetry and epigraphic metadata to create a custom tool for the visualization and digital annotation of graffiti found in Pompeii.

Graffiti depicting gladiatorial combat. Courtesy of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.

Among the standout new discoveries made is a scribbled drawing of gladiatorial combat on the corridor’s southern side, near the first staircase leading up to seats in the neighboring theater. The incision into the plaster is very shallow, and the image only partially survives, but we can clearly see two armored figures fighting each other.

Each gladiator measures about four inches, and the best-preserved bends his right leg forward while tilting his torso backwards and brandishing a sword in his right hand. This pose appears to be mirrored by his opponent.

Although gladiators were a common subject for graffiti in Pompeii, the report’s authors praised the drawing’s “liveliness, with supple lines and a certain mastery of the expression of movement, in an overall composition that seems to ‘revolve’ around the two feet facing each other and the two shields clashing.” They further suggested that the original composition may have been drawn from memory, so offering us “a precious insight into the imaginary world of ordinary Pompeians.”

Graffiti containing the words “Erato amat…” Courtesy of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.

Another new discovery is a declaration of love. The inscription has largely been eroded away and now consists of two surviving fragments that appear to be by the same hand. The text begins “Erato amat…,” or “Erato loves…” before it is cut off by the damaged plaster. Erato was a woman’s name.

The text recalls another, previously-known text from the same corridor: “Methe, a slave of Cominia, from the town of Atella, loves Chrestus. May Pompeian Venus be propitious in her heart to them both and may they always live harmoniously.”

Overall, the team captured around 300 pieces of graffiti, of which 79 were new discoveries not previously visible to the naked eye. Their tool has also allowed them to digitally archive pieces of graffiti that were already known, serving as a new means to preserve ancient testimonies.

Researchers create RTI images of graffiti in Pompeii. Courtesy of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.

“Technology is the key that opens up new rooms of the ancient world,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. He added that his team are currently working on the protection of this “memory of life lived in Pompeii.”

This effort will include constructing an overhead covering for the ancient corridor, which was unearthed in 1794, to shield the fragile plaster from the elements.