16th-century graffiti of Tower of London prisoners decoded for first time

[Still Waters]

The writing was on the wall for many of the prisoners incarcerated in the Tower of London over the centuries. Now, it can finally be deciphered.

Hundreds of graffiti texts scratched into the historic stone walls by prisoners as they awaited their fate have come to light for the first time. Examples that were either overlooked or illegible are emerging through cutting-edge technology.

Dr Jamie Ingram, who is heading a major project to study graffiti in the Tower of London, described the discoveries as “exciting”. He began studying the Salt Tower on the south-eastern corner – part of the curtain wall that Henry III built in the 1230s. Its prisoners included Hew Draper, a Bristol innkeeper accused of practising sorcery and imprisoned in 1561, who carved an astrological sphere with zodiacal signs into the wall, despite having claimed that he had destroyed all his magical books. No record exists of his fate.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/dec/01/16th-century-graffiti-of-tower-of-london-prisoners-decoded-for-first-time

[Guyver]

This would have been interesting….had they bothered to actually translate any of the messages.