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For most people the mention of graffiti conjures up notions of subversion, defacement, and underground culture. Yet, the term was coined by classical archaeologists excavating Pompeii in the 19th century and has been embraced by modern street culture: graffiti have been left on natural sites and public monuments for tens of thousands of years. They mark a position in time, a relation to space, and a territorial claim. They are also material displays of individual identity and social interaction. As an effective, socially accepted medium of self-definition, ancient graffiti may be compared to the modern use of social networks. This book shows that graffiti, a very ancient practice long hidden behind modern disapproval and street culture, have been integral to literacy and self-expression throughout history.

Graffiti are ubiquitous within the ancient world, but remain underexploited as a form of archaeological or historical evidence. They include a great variety of texts and images written or drawn inside and outside buildings, in public and private places, on monuments in the city, on objects used in daily life, and on mountains in the countryside. In each case they can be seen as actively engaging with their environment in a variety of ways. Ancient Graffiti in Context interrogates this cultural phenomenon and by doing so, brings it into the mainstream of ancient history and archaeology. Focusing on different approaches to and interpretations of graffiti from a variety of sites and chronological contexts, Baird and Taylor pose a series of questions not previously asked of this evidence, such as: What are graffiti, and how can we interpret them? In what ways, and with whom, do graffiti communicate? To what extent do graffiti represent or subvert the cultural values of the society in which they occur? By comparing themes across time and space, and viewing graffiti in context, this book provides a series of interpretative strategies for scholars and students of the ancient world. As such it will be essential reading for Classical archaeologists and historians alike. J.A. Baird is Lecturer in Archaeology in the Department of History, Classics, and Archaeology at Birkbeck College, University of London. Her Leverhulme-funded project, Communities on the Frontier, uses archival records and new fieldwork to examine the ancient site of Dura-Europos in Syria from its material and textual remains. Claire Taylor is Lecturer in Greek History at Trinity College Dublin. She has written on various aspects of fifth and fourth-century Athenian politics and society as well as on the epigraphic culture of non-elite groups. Her currently research explores wealth and poverty in fourth-century Attica. \"This volume admirably illustrates the various directions the study of graffiti is now taking. Chaniotis' concluding sentence aptly sums up the scholarship on graffiti found in this volume: 'Their study is difficult and challenging, but rewarding and never, ever boring.' (206).\" - Judith Lynn Sebesta, Classical World \"This volume as a whole challenges more traditional viewpoints regarding who is scribbling on walls and objects, literacy levels and multilingualism, and the subversive nature of this type of speech act, whilst clearly demonstrating the ubiquitous nature of graffiti...the use of new methodological approaches and the examination of graffiti in a broader chronological and geographical context are thought provoking, and should stimulate future scholarly debate on this subject.\" - Virginia Campbell, University of Leeds, UK, for the Journal of Hellenic Studies 1. Ancient Graffiti in Context: Introduction. J.A. Baird and Claire Taylor 2. Dialogues of Graffiti in the House of the Four Styles at Pompeii (Casa Dei Quattro Stili, I.8.17, 11). Rebecca R. Benefiel 3. The Graffiti of Dura-Europos: A Contextual Approach. J.A. Baird 4. Identifying Children’s Graffiti in Roman Campania: A Developmental Psychological Approach. Katherine V. Huntley 5. Graffiti and the Epigraphic Habit: Creating Communities and Writing Alternate Histories in Classical Attica. Claire Taylor 6. Transcripts of Dissent? Political Graffiti and Elite Ideology under the Principate. Alexei V. Zadorojnyi 7. The Materiality of Graffiti: Socialising a Lekythos in Pherai. Katerina Volioti 8. Egyptian ‘Inscriptions’ and Greek ‘Graffiti’ at El Kanais in the Egyptian Eastern Desert. Rachel Mairs 9. Blogging Rome: Graffiti as Speech-Act and Cultural Discourse. Peter Keegan 10. Graffiti in Aphrodisias: Images – Texts – Contexts. Angelos Chaniotis

Most of the everyday writing from the ancient world—that is, informal writing not intended for a long life or wide public distribution—has perished. Reinterpreting the silences and blanks of the historical record, leading papyrologist Roger S. Bagnall convincingly argues that ordinary people—from Britain to Egypt to Afghanistan—used writing in their daily lives far more extensively than has been recognized. Marshalling new and little-known evidence, including remarkable graffiti recently discovered in Smyrna, Bagnall presents a fascinating analysis of writing in different segments of society. His book offers a new picture of literacy in the ancient world in which Aramaic rivals Greek and Latin as a great international language, and in which many other local languages develop means of written expression alongside these metropolitan tongues.

In this article, I briefly discuss a project I co-organized this year in collaboration with Oreen Cohen, Shane Pilster, Rivers of Steel, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts, and the American Studies Association. Named “Hemispheric Conversations: Urban Art Project” we used international collaboration between artists in Chicago, Pittsburgh, and León Guanajuato Mexico as a platform for conversation about how to reimagine our shared urban spaces. In a political moment that might be a cause for despair, collaborative art practice in urban space can serve as one vehicle to reignite our shared sense of possibility and energy.

How a city government in central Mexico evolved from waging war on graffiti in the early 2000s to sanctioning its creation a decade later, and how youth navigated these changing conditions for producing art. The local government, residents, and media outlets in León, Mexico, treated graffiti as a disease until the state began sponsoring artistic graffiti through a program of its own. In Voices in Aerosol , the first book-length study of state-sponsored graffiti, Caitlin Frances Bruce considers the changing perceptions and recognition of graffiti artists, their right to the city, and the use of public space over the span of eighteen years (2000-2018). Focusing on the midsized city of León, Bruce offers readers a look at the way negotiations with the neoliberal state unfolded at different levels and across decades. Issues brought to light in this case study, such as graffiti as a threat and graffiti as a sign of gentrification, resonate powerfully with those germane to other urban landscapes throughout the Western Hemisphere and beyond. Combining archival work, interviews, considerations of urban planning, local politics in Mexico, and insights gained by observing graffiti events and other informal artistic encounters, Bruce offers a new lens through which to understand the interplay between sanctioned and unsanctioned forms of cultural expression. Ultimately, Voices in Aerosol builds a strong case for graffiti as a contested tool for \"voicing\" public demands.

Under a blinding desert sky, a man carved a graffito into the rock face along the Wadi Mia in Egyptian El-Kanais to proclaim: “Bless God. Theodotos son of Dorion the Ιουδαῖος, returned safely from the sea.”¹ Contrary to modern expectations about graffiti and their irreverent artists, Theodotos was no rebel. For three thousand years, kings and travelers alike had scratched messages into temple buildings and rocks surrounding El-Kanais, a way station in the eastern desert between the Red Sea and the Nile valley, fewer than sixty kilometers from Edfu on the route to Berenice.² Water along such routes was scarce,