Medieval Graffiti of the Upper Room of Zion Deciphered with New Technologies

An international team of researchers has successfully deciphered dozens of medieval graffiti found on the walls of the Upper Room in Jerusalem, the site where Christian tradition holds that the Last Supper took place. The researchers uncovered a rich variety of inscriptions, family crests, and drawings dating from the 14th to 16th centuries that had previously remained invisible to visitors to the historic site.

A treasure trove of historical evidence beneath layers of plaster

For centuries, the rectangular room at the top of Mount Zion has attracted Christian crusaders and pilgrims. Situated on the top floor of a building outside the city walls of Jerusalem, the Cenacle is believed to be the site of Jesus Christ’s final meal with his twelve apostles before his arrest and crucifixion.

According to historical data, the Upper Room of Zion is located above the supposed burial place of King David and remains a place of pilgrimage to this day. Modern visitors can see a stone room with marble elements and Gothic ribbed vaults, probably built in the late 12th century.

For a long time, the walls of the upper room kept a secret - numerous graffiti left by Christian pilgrims between the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 16th century, when this room was part of the Franciscan monastery of Mount Zion. After the expulsion of the Franciscans from Jerusalem following the capture of the city by the Ottomans in 1517, the walls were covered with a thick layer of white plaster, which remained until restoration work in the mid-1990s.

Advanced technologies in the service of archaeology

In the first part of a comprehensive study, researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Austrian Academy of Sciences documented and analyzed 30 inscriptions and nine images on the walls of the Upper Room. The results were published in the journal Liber Annuus , which specializes in theology and biblical archaeology.

To identify and decipher the ancient inscriptions, the researchers used a range of modern technologies. After a thorough visual inspection of the room using ultraviolet and infrared filters, the scientists relied primarily on two photographic techniques. The first, Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), highlighted the physical surface of the walls and helped reveal the erased marks. The second, multispectral photography, identified the specific chemicals used in the ink, charcoal, and paint. The resulting data was digitally processed and analyzed by linguistic experts.

These methods have made it possible to see what is impossible to see with the naked eye and to reconstruct fragments of history that seemed irretrievably lost.

Geography of Pilgrimage: The Diversity of Medieval Visitors

Taken together, the markers paint a vivid picture of the diversity of Christians who visited the Upper Room. They include Johannes Poloner, a German pilgrim whose account of his visit to the Holy Land in the early 1420s has survived to this day; Adrian I von Bubenberg, a Swiss knight famous for defending Bern in 1476 (his son also left a marker 20 years later); Jacomo Querini, who belonged to a Venetian patrician family; and Lamprecht von Seckendorf, a Franconian count.

These are just a few of the visitors who made themselves recognizable by a word or painted family crest. Inscriptions in Latin, Armenian, Cyrillic and Arabic indicate a wide range of Christians who visited the site.

“Taken together, the inscriptions provide a unique insight into the geographical origins of the pilgrims,” said Ilya Berkovich, one of the study’s authors. “It was much more diverse than the modern Western-oriented research perspective would have us believe.” The group included Armenians, Czechs, Serbs and Arabic-speaking Christians living in the East.

Special finds: coats of arms, drawings and symbols

Among the most interesting finds is the identification of a coat of arms belonging to the noble family of Tristram von Teuffenbach, originally from the Murau region of Styria, Austria. It was probably carved into one of the walls by a companion during a pilgrimage in 1436. In that year, the future Holy Roman Emperor, Archduke Frederick of Habsburg, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land accompanied by a large retinue of about 100 Austrian nobles.

Another find is a coat of arms reminiscent of the modern coat of arms of the German town of Altbach, belonging to the family of the Swabian knight Albert von Altbach. Above this coat of arms, the researchers found images of a goblet of wine, a plate of food, and bread with a hole in the middle, possibly representing the Jerusalem bagel. According to the authors of the study, these objects could have been drawn as a reference to the Last Supper.

The Armenian inscription, which reads "Christmas 1300," may have been left by a soldier fighting for the Armenian King Hethum II in a battle in Syria on December 22, 1299.

Of particular interest is the depiction of a scorpion, which is likely a reference to the Sufi tradition, in which believers enter a special state of trance and handle poisonous animals. The authors of the study believe that the drawing was made in honor of Sheikh Ahmad al-Ajami (nicknamed the Persian), who played an important role in the confiscation of the Upper Room of Zion from the Franciscans and its conversion into a mosque.

Historical context: Franciscan monastery and Ottoman conquest

The Upper Room, which has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, is located south of the Zion Gate inside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City. Most of the graffiti found dates back to the late Middle Ages, when the Upper Room functioned as the center of a Franciscan monastery that assisted Catholic pilgrims, although visitors of various faiths also frequented the site.

In 1517, shortly after the Ottoman conquest, the Franciscans were expelled from the Upper Room, which remained under Muslim control until 1948. Traces of this period are evident in the graffiti on the walls. Islamic graffiti uncovered by the project include an inscription and a drawing of a scorpion honoring al-Ajami, Jerusalem’s first religious figure under the Ottomans.

“We do not know exactly when the walls of the Upper Room were plastered, but we assume that it happened soon after the Muslim capture, since it is unlikely that the new owners would have left in plain sight numerous Christian inscriptions, heraldic symbols and pilgrims’ records,” the researchers write.

“Unlike their Christian counterparts, which were mostly written or drawn in charcoal, all the Muslim inscriptions, as well as the image of a scorpion, were carved into the wall surface,” they add. “This was apparently done as a statement of ownership, ensuring that the Muslim inscriptions would not be erased if the building ever returned to Christian hands.”

Graffiti in sacred places: vandalism or tradition?

Although the researchers were thrilled by the wealth of information they were able to extract from the walls, a puzzling question remained: why were pilgrims allowed to deface a site that was considered one of Jerusalem’s most sacred sites? In fact, given that some of the more complex inscriptions would have required many hours of work, it seems possible that the Franciscans approved of the graffiti.

“The Franciscans’ attitude to this issue was ambiguous,” the authors wrote. “The situation in the Upper Room corresponds to what is known about the phenomenon of church graffiti in Western Europe.”

In the modern era, the idea of “graffiti” next to a “church” is a cause for concern, with those who deface historic sites facing legal consequences. However, such tagging was not uncommon in the medieval period. The study’s authors note that “Graffiti in Western European churches became common in the late 13th century,” and has attracted considerable scholarly attention in recent generations.

While many of the deciphered inscriptions appear to have been hastily scratched with charcoal or a knife, others demonstrate a level of artistic skill and were likely created with the knowledge, if not approval, of the monastery.

The importance of the study for historical science

These newly discovered ancient inscriptions significantly expand our knowledge of the pilgrimage to medieval Jerusalem. They provide rare physical evidence that complements the written sources and helps us learn more about the people who made the long and dangerous journeys to the holy sites.

What is particularly significant is that the graffiti reveal a much wider geographic and cultural diversity of pilgrims than previously thought. As the researchers note: “While the scholarly literature has predominantly focused on the experiences of Western European pilgrims, the Upper Room inscriptions serve as a vital reminder of the rich diversity among late medieval Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem.”

The findings also shed light on the complex religious and political history of Jerusalem, where Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions intertwine and overlap. The tensions between religious communities and the changing power over holy sites are reflected in the very walls of the Upper Room, where Christian inscriptions in charcoal or ink sit alongside Muslim inscriptions carved into stone.

Technological breakthrough in historical research

The success of the Upper Room graffiti deciphering project demonstrates the potential of modern technology for historical and archaeological research. Methods that were developed to study the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran are now being applied to reveal hidden inscriptions on the walls of historic buildings.

“These new discoveries were made possible by new technological capabilities developed by the Israel Antiquities Authority as part of its study of the Judean Desert Scrolls (at the site of Qumran). The method uses multispectral photography to reveal inscriptions that have faded over the years and become invisible to the human eye,” explained project leaders Michael Chernin and Shai Halevi of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Technologies like these can revolutionize our understanding of the past, making visible what was previously hidden. They allow researchers to “read” the walls of historic buildings as a kind of archive that records their complex histories and the stories of the people who visited them.

The Upper Room of Zion is a sacred place for three religions

The Upper Room has special significance not only for Christianity, but also for other monotheistic religions. Jews and Muslims revere this place as the tomb of the biblical King David, which, according to legend, is located in the basement of the building. Christians revere it as the site of the Last Supper.

The site is of exceptional religious significance to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, with Jews and Muslims venerating it as the tomb of King David, which is said to be located in the basement.

This overlapping of different religious traditions is characteristic of Jerusalem as a whole and results in many places in the city having a complex history of changes of hands, destruction and restoration, rethinking and reinterpretation.

Further research prospects

The published study is only the first part of a comprehensive study of the Upper Room of Zion. It is expected that further work will reveal even more inscriptions and drawings, as well as allow for a deeper analysis of those already discovered.

In addition, the methods successfully applied in this project can be used to study other historical buildings in Jerusalem and beyond. Thousands of historical walls potentially contain hidden inscriptions that can be revealed using multispectral photography and other modern technologies.

These studies can significantly enrich our knowledge of the past, providing a unique opportunity to hear the voices of ordinary people from distant eras whose names rarely appear in official historical chronicles.

The contribution of international cooperation to historical science

The success of the project to decipher the graffiti in the Upper Room was made possible by the international collaboration of scientists from different countries. The research team, led by Shai Halevi and Michael Czernin, included scientists from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

Such collaboration is especially important when studying a site that has significance for multiple cultures and religions. The different perspectives and expertise that scholars from different countries bring together help to create a more complete and balanced picture of the past.

In addition, international cooperation facilitates the exchange of technologies and methodologies, which accelerates progress in historical and archaeological research.

The Importance of an Interdisciplinary Approach

The project to decipher the graffiti in the Upper Room also demonstrates the importance of an interdisciplinary approach in modern scholarship. The success of the research was made possible by the collaboration of archaeologists, historians, linguists, digital experts and conservationists.

Archaeologists and historians determined the historical context and significance of the finds, linguists helped decipher inscriptions in different languages, digital experts applied advanced techniques to reveal hidden images, and conservation specialists ensured the preservation of fragile traces of the past.

Such interdisciplinary collaboration is becoming increasingly common and necessary in modern science, as complex problems often require different types of expertise to solve them.

The legacy of the past in the present

The story of the Upper Room, with its complex interweaving of Christian and Muslim graffiti, is a microcosm of the history of Jerusalem and the Middle East as a whole. It reminds us of the complex relationships between the various religious and cultural traditions in the region, which continue to this day.

At the same time, pilgrim graffiti reminds us of the universal human need to leave a mark, a testimony of one’s existence and one’s faith. From medieval pilgrims to modern tourists, people seek to connect themselves in some way to places they consider sacred or historically significant.

The study of the graffiti in the Upper Room allows us to better understand these aspects of human experience and how they manifested themselves in the specific historical context of the late Middle Ages and early modern period.

A place of pilgrimage through the centuries

The history of the Upper Room as a place of pilgrimage continues today. Although the religious and political context has changed, people from all over the world continue to visit the site, drawn by its historical and spiritual significance.

A study of medieval graffiti shows that such pilgrimages have a long and varied history, and that pilgrims have always come from different countries and cultures. This reminds us that Jerusalem has always been an international city, a meeting place for different cultures and traditions.

Perhaps one of the most valuable things we can take away from this study is the understanding that even in an era of religious conflict and crusades, people from different cultures could peacefully visit the same holy places, leaving their marks next to each other on the walls of the Upper Room.

Preservation and study of cultural heritage

The study of the graffiti in the Upper Room highlights the importance of preserving and studying cultural heritage. These inscriptions and drawings would have been lost forever if not for the restoration work in the 1990s and subsequent scientific research.

This reminds us of the need to treat historical monuments with care and invest in their preservation and study. Every historical building, every ancient wall potentially contains priceless evidence of the past that can be revealed with the help of modern technology.

It also highlights the value of archives and historical records, which have allowed researchers to identify some of the graffiti artists and contextualise their findings. Without surviving records of Johannes Poloner’s pilgrimage or the known coats of arms of noble families, many of these inscriptions would have remained anonymous and their meaning would have been lost.