The Austrian Academy of Science (OeAW) alongside the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) recently shared the discovery of some nearly 30 inscriptions and nine drawings on the walls of the Cenacle in Jerusalem, the place that is traditionally believed to be the site of Jesus’ Last Supper. Jews and Muslims hold the site to be sacred as the final resting place of King David.
The site has been a draw to pilgrims worldwide for centuries and the inscriptions, which mostly date from the Middle Ages, appear to be a sort of graffiti from visiting pilgrims who came to the site from the 14th to 16th centuries. Archaeologists uncovered the inscriptions using advanced imaging techniques such as ultraviolet filters, Reflectance Transformation Imaging, and multispectral photography. These techniques allowed the researchers to see the inscriptions clearly, despite having been hidden under plaster for centuries.
One such discovery includes an Armenian inscription from “Christmas 1300,” and an Arabic inscription reading “ya al-Ḥalabīya.” “Based on the double use of the feminine suffix ‘ya’, the researchers concluded that this is a graffito of a female Christian pilgrim from the Syrian city of Aleppo, making it a rare material trace of pre-modern female pilgrimage,” researchers said in a statement. One of the names included in the inscriptions was Johannes Poloner, who traveled to Jerusalem in 1421–22 and wrote a book about his experience.
Some of the drawings are quite intricate, implying that pilgrims might have been permitted to leave their marks. One visitor drew a depiction of the Last Supper, featuring a goblet and platter, as well as what appears to be a type of Jerusalem bagel. Up until 1517, the site had been a Franciscan monastery until the Ottoman empire invaded Jerusalem and kicked out the friars. “The attitude of the Franciscans to this subject was ambivalent,” concluded the researchers. Some of the inscriptions appear to have been made after the Ottoman invasion, with one writing a dedication to Sheikh Aḥmad al-ʿAǧamī.
The variety of inscriptions indicate a much wider global appeal of the site than researchers had originally anticipated. “When put together, the inscriptions provide a unique insight into the geographical origins of the pilgrims. Inscriptions indicate visitors from Armenia, Syria, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Serbia, and the Czech lands. This was far more diverse than current Western-dominated research perspective led us to believe,” said historian Ilya Berkovich.