Ammon News - The lives of the ancient Romans might seem impossibly different from our own today, but newly discovered graffiti shows that some things never change.

Archaeologists have discovered 79 previously unseen pieces of graffiti scratched into the walls of an alley in Pompeii that might have doubled as a public urinal.

The ancient doodles were found in Pompeii's Theatre Corridor, a narrow space that connected the city's two theatres and offered citizens a sheltered place to hang out.

One tantalising fragment writes 'Erato Amat...', which translates to: 'Erato loves...'.

Although we know that Erato was a common name for female slaves and freedwomen, the name of their lover has unfortunately been lost to time.

The so–called Theatre Corridor is a 27–metre–long and 3–metre–wide alleyway that offered theatre–goers much–needed respite from bad weather in winter and the hot sun in summer.

Archaeologists first spotted the traces of graffiti when the alley was excavated in 1794, but new technology has allowed archaeologists to find drawings previously invisible to the naked eye.

In a new paper, researchers from the Sorbonne in Paris and the University of Quebec used a technique called Reflectance Transformation Imaging.

They used a special camera setup to shine bright lights at the wall from multiple angles, allowing a computer program to pick up tiny details too fine to see.

In total, they detailed over 300 pieces of graffiti in the Theatre Corridor, including 79 that had never been seen before.

Some of those, like the one written by the mysterious Erato, are messages from lovers.

Daily Mail