r/Archeology • u/wroniiex • 5d ago

Help identifying possible historical graffiti at Sacro Monte di Orta

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I recently visited the UNESCO World Heritage site Sacro Monte di Orta in northern Italy. On the wall of one of the chapels, I noticed what looks like old, coppery or rust-coloured writing or markings.

Could anyone help me understand whether this could plausibly date back to the Renaissance/16th–17th century period when the chapels were being constructed, or if it’s more likely to be later graffiti?

I’ve attached photos for reference. Any insights into the style, material, or context would be greatly appreciated!

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7

u/theanedditor 5d ago

I hate to say it but... this is where an LLM like ChatGPT excels. If you upload the image and tell it as much info as possible you can ask it to read it all, output it in an organized table that can help group the right words together to give you context and meaning and then ask it to compare to other authoratative sources it can find online to help eval its dating.

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u/Spaceginja 5d ago

I'ma go out on a limb and say most of these are 18th &19th Century inscriptions.

3

u/Strong67 5d ago

https://imgur.com/a/LAemXBP Image cleaned. Being in “Piemonte” - northwest of Italy - the writings are in French.

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u/zilonisss 5d ago

From chatGPT - It looks like old graffiti made by visitors or parishioners, most likely from the Renaissance or Baroque period (1600s–1700s). The script is in Italian cursive, and I can make out at least “Lozano” (a surname) and “Gio” (short for Giovanni). The rest seems to be names and flourished signatures.

So, yes—this is old writing, probably graffiti carved or painted inside a church in Italy, left by people who wanted to mark their presence. It doesn’t read like a religious text but more like personal names written centuries ago.

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u/Perelin_Took 5d ago

Is Lozano an Italian name? It definitely exists in Spanish