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.
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"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
Graffiti are unofficial texts and images, expressions of thoughts and feelings of ordinary people. For this reason they are a valuable source for social, political, and cultural history, but only when a historian can place them in historical contexts and correlate them with other sources of information. Aphrodisias is one of the rare cases in which this is possible.
Also, the opponents of Christianity have left their traces on the walls of the buildings. Numerous Jewish graffiti, usually menoroth, lamps with seven arms, can be seen in shops owned by Jews in the Sebasteion and the South Agora. As for the pagans, they responded to the Christian cross by engraving their own symbol, the double axe (labrys), the symbol of the Carian Zeus. Such graffiti reveal the importance of religious identities for the inhabitants of Aphrodisias and the bitter competition among Jews, Christians, and pagans.
The graffiti of Aphrodisias show that the study of the social history of an ancient city needs to take into consideration all types of evidence: texts and images, works of literature and documents, the masterpiece of an inspired and inspiring mind, and the humble expressions of the thoughts and feelings of ordinary people. This approach can be rewarding. It enables us to have a better picture of the dreams and nightmares, the hopes and the fears of human beings in times past. The graffiti, which are related with religious conflicts, address a very familiar issue: how religion divides and splits communities. Such graffiti are still relevant.
Angelos Chaniotis, Professor in the School of Historical Studies, specializes in Hellenistic history and uses epigraphic evidence, like inscriptions, as the source for social and religious history as well as the history of emotions, memory, and identity in the ancient world. He has addressed topics such as the role of inscriptions in the historical consciousness of ancient Greece, the importance of emotions in the cult practices of the eastern Roman Empire, and the cultural history of war in the Hellenistic period. He was recently awarded the Anneliese Maier Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt foundation.
Jaroslaw Zralka, Pre-Columbian Maya Graffiti, Context, Dating and Function, Alter, Krakow 2014Graffiti have always been a popular means of expression for people from different social strata in ancient as well as modern societies. They constitute a rich source of information on both the daily life and religious activities of the people who created them. Although ancient graffiti are mostly known from the Old World, especially from the Roman Empire or Egypt, they were also very popular in the pre-Columbian world. Ancient Maya civilisation, which once thrived in the rainforests of Mexico and Central America, has an extremely extensive corpus of graffiti. Many Maya sites have graffiti of various types, including inscribed, painted, gouged, impressed and sketched with charcoal. Maya graffiti were usually executed on the plaster surfaces of architectural buildings: chiefly on walls, vaults, floors, as well as benches and other architectural elements. Most examples are figural images that usually represent people, animals, architectural buildings and geometrical designs. They may also depict supernatural beings, symbolic and religious objects and many other subjects, usually related to the socio-political and religious lives of the Maya elites.Despite architectural graffiti being broadly present in various Maya sites, they remain a relatively rarely studied phenomenon. Little interest has been shown in this kind of art and Maya graffiti tend to be published as minor appendices to larger archaeological reports. Moreover, in the case of many Maya sites, the graffiti were not even documented or recorded. This attitude of sidelining Maya graffiti stemmed from the fact that many scholars considered graffiti to be trivial scribbles or the inconsequential work of the Postclassic or Colonial populations squatting in Maya palaces and temples after they had been abandoned by their original inhabitants. Such long held views in the field are changing; recent studies by various scholars have shown that the meaning of graffiti is far more complex and sophisticated than previously thought. The current view is that graffiti were made by various authors in different periods of time and by people representing different social groups. This book constitutes a comprehensive treatment of the subject of graffiti and provides comparative iconographic data on graffiti from various Maya sites. It also has ample and up-to-date information about graffiti, including its dating, meaning, techniques of rendition and function.List of figures, tables and chartsAcknowledgementsPrefaceCHAPTER IDEFINITION OF THE TERM GRAFFITIIntroductionModern graffiti and definitionsProblems with definition in ancient culturesWhat comprises graffiti in Maya area?Cave art, rock art and what does not comprise graffitiCHAPTER IIFROM PHARAONIC EGYPT TO MEDIEVAL EUROPE: AN OVERVIEW OF GRAFFITI BEYOND THE MAYA AREAIntroductionAncient EgyptAncient GreeceRoman EmpireMedieval and early modern EuropeMesoamerican graffitiCHAPTER IIIHISTORY OF RESEARCH ON MAYA GRAFFITIThe Beginnings: 19th and the first half of the 20th centuryTikal Project research and a new epoch in studying Maya graffitiRecent decadesCHAPTER IVTECHNIQUES OF RENDERING MAYA GRAFFITIIntroductionTechniques of Maya graffitiDocumentation techniquesCHAPTER VTHEMATIC CONTENTMethodological backgroundGeneral description of all iconographic categoriesNarrative scenesCHAPTER VICONTEXT, DATING, FUNCTION AND MEANING OF MAYA GRAFFITISpatial distributionLocation of Maya graffiti: Architectural contextDating of graffitiStylistic diversity of Maya graffitiInterpretations of Maya graffitiDetermining function: Testing various hypotheses and seekingthe authors of the graffitiCHAPTER VIICONCLUSIONSREFERENCESCATALOGUELIST OF PLATES (including sources of illustrations and credits)PLATES 2ff7e9595c
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