Writing's on the wall: visual archaeology techniques to elicit the historical graffiti in Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv

Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv is a UNESCO World Heritage Site of exceptional significance, housing more than 7,000 graffiti inscriptions carved over a millennium. These shallow markings, etched into frescoes and architectural elements, constitute a vast and layered source of knowledge on religious practices, language development, cultural exchange, and everyday life. In light of the ongoing war in Ukraine and the acute risk of cultural heritage loss, a Swedish–Ukrainian collaboration was initiated to digitally preserve the cathedral’s inscriptions and to make them accessible for research and public dissemination. This article presents the outcomes of a fieldwork-based, practice-led research project assessing visual archaeology techniques for documentation under conflict conditions. The project tested and refined workflows using Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), Structure from Motion (SfM), and terrestrial laser scanning to capture both the spatial context and the intricate detail of the inscriptions. The challenges of working in a war zone—limited access, lighting conditions, and the sacred character of the site—necessitated significant adaptations and underscored the need for situational judgement in digitisation processes. Stakeholder engagement played a central role in defining data needs across disciplines, from epigraphy and palaeography to conservation and art history. The project also established scalable protocols and provided training to local heritage professionals, thereby building capacity for ongoing documentation. While only 30 per cent of the graffiti surfaces have been digitised to date, the project demonstrates that quality in digital preservation is not solely a matter of technical specification, but also of contextual adaptation, stakeholder engagement, and relevance to future knowledge-making under conditions of uncertainty.