Resurrecting a "Ghost Inscription" from the Colosseum
The Researchers
Alison CooleyLink opens in a new window, Department of Classics and Ancient History; Paula WilsonLink opens in a new window and Mike DonnellyLink opens in a new window, Centre for Imaging, Metrology, and Additive Technologies, Warwick Manufacturing Group. In collaboration with the Parco archeologico del Colosseo, Roma.
The Challenge
Our project revisits the history of one of the world's most iconic buildings, the Colosseum in Rome, by attempting to recover the text of an inscription found in the building in the nineteenth century, whose metal letters had been removed already in antiquity, leaving behind only their dowel-holes. The challenge of reading the missing text is increased by the fact that another inscription was then carved on top of the dowel-holes during the fifth century. This is an opportunity to revisit an artefact of key historical and cultural importance, exploring how an interdisciplinary approach based on archaeology, classical philology, epigraphy, ancient history, and engineering can offer new insights into Roman political culture.
Our Approach
We are exploring how imaging techniques may help to recover the text of the Colosseum鈥檚 dedicatory inscription. Our approach has been to start by re-evaluating the attempt made in 1995 to reconstruct the text of the original inscription, which worked from line drawings of the dowel-holes. This reconstructed text has been widely accepted as revealing the Colosseum's dedicatory inscription, despite uncertainties expressed by the scholar who published it. Our aim is to re-examine the validity of this hypothesis using high resolution 3D laser scanning to conduct an 'autopsy' of the inscription alongside specialist knowledge of Latin epigraphy and evidence from recent archaeological discoveries in the underground passages of the arena, to understand the older inscription.
Our research will be published later this year in the Journal of Roman Archaeology.
Our Impact
The importance of re-reading the dedicatory inscription of the Colosseum lies in its political significance as a monument built by the emperors of the Flavian dynasty and its possible ties to the conquest of Jerusalem. We are also reaching technical conclusions that will be of use to other cultural heritage sites, having identified what are the most useful scanning technologies for capturing the inscription鈥檚 surface details. Our project has shown the potential for non-invasive technologies to help reinterpret the dowel-holes of missing inscriptions. We hope to extend our project to build up a wider picture of other 'ghost inscriptions' elsewhere in the Mediterranean.
