Graffito (archaeology)

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The Graffito (archaeology), {plural Graffiti), has been created by humans since Homo sapiens have been traversing this planet. There are even scratchings, doodlings, drawings, symbols, and art, etc. etched on bone pieces from prehistoric times, and possibly earlier.

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[edit] Listings of Graffito (archaeology)

The beginning categories of Graffito (archaeology) are:

  • Writing system graffiti.
  • Picture (glyptic) graffiti, or Iconography.
    • Ostraca type graffiti, with pictures.
  • Complex, merged, or multiple category graffiti.

[edit] Late (Roman) Demotic graffito

Example of Demotic "Egyptian" script from a Rosetta Stone Replica, 198 BCE.
Example of Demotic "Egyptian" script from a Rosetta Stone Replica, 198 BCE.

Very Late Egyptian Demotic was used only for ostraca, mummy labels, subscriptions to Greek texts, and graffiti. The last dated example of Egyptian Demotic is from the Temple of Isis at Philae, dated to 11 December 452 CE. See Demotic "Egyptian".

[edit] "Christian Magic square", (the "Sator square")

The Sator square is a Latin graffito found at numerous sites throughout the Roman Empire (e.g. Pompeii, Dura-Europos) and elsewhere (United Kingdom). It is a palindrome-(theory) which forms a word square that may be read in any direction (with theories). See Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas for details, and Talk:Graffito (archaeology). The reason that the palindrome may only be a theory, is because the square may have to be read boustrophedonically. (See: Boustrophedon and the Ceram reference, et al.)

The "Sator Square"– Pottery sherd from the United Kingdom: [1]

[edit] Deir el-Bahri religious graffiti

Because of pilgrims, to religious sites, there are ample examples of the Graffito (archaeology) at the Egyptian site of Deir el-Bahri. The pilgrims were of a semi-educated class, and are responsible for some of these graffiti pieces. See the section in Parkinson Ref., pg 92., (4 objects).

[edit] See

[edit] References

  • Parkinson, R. Cracking Codes, the Rosetta Stone, and Decipherment, Richard Parkinson, with W. Diffie, M. Fischer, and R.S. Simpson, (University of California Press), c. 1999. Section: page 92, "Graffiti" from a temple at Deir el-Bahri. British Museum pieces, EA 1419, 47962, 47963, 47971.
  • Ceram, C.W. The March of Archaeology, C.W.Ceram, translated from the German, Richard and Clara Winston, (Alfred A. Knopf, New York), c 1958.
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