Ancient Graffiti in Context

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.

• 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

"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