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As evidenced by the amount of grafitti in public places, people just really like leaving their mark wherever they can. There's grafitti in ancient ruins that (a

As evidenced by the amount of grafitti in public places, people just really like leaving their mark wherever they can. There's grafitti in ancient ruins that (aside from the language) could be mistaken for grafitti in a bathroom stall. People are just gonna people.

duxup 5y ago
I recall a note left on a piece of Greek pottery that said something like "<name1> made this and I bet <name2> can't do any better." Wonderful slice of some potter rivalry from long long ago ;)
- rbalicki 5y ago
  There's a lot of bawdy graffiti that was discovered in Pompeii: https://kashgar.com.au/blogs/history/the-bawdy-graffiti-of-pompeii-and-herculaneu https://kashgar.com.au/blogs/history/the-bawdy-graffiti-of-p...
  - pizzaknife 5y ago
    this is hilarious and incredibly interesting, thanks for the link!
  - delecti 5y ago
    This is exactly the example I was trying to remember. I love things like this because it helps take the past off a pedestal. We've been the same raunchy species from the beginning.
irrational 5y ago
This is exactly why I doubt all the expert opinions on cave art. "This undoubtedly had ritual significance." BS. It was probably just some teenagers screwing around.
- delecti 5y ago
  I wouldn't go too far in the opposite direction though. Teenagers screwing around is more likely to be lewd carvings than life-size carvings of a camel. A rule of thumb I've heard is that "ritual significance" is code for either "we have no idea" or "probably a sex toy", depending on context. In cases like this, I think the default assumption should be "probably art".
  - AlotOfReading 5y ago
    "ritual" is a pretty general term that doesn't quite match its colloquial meaning and generally doesn't have anything to do with sex toys. Imagine you find an old PCB that you weren't quite sure the purpose of. Is it unfair to call it "electronic" when there's a more specific term that could be applied if you knew what its purpose was? The same objection applies equally to "art".
- Tagbert 5y ago
  Much of the cave art required people to go deep into hard to access areas of caves. People created the art over long periods of time. Many of the pieces incorporated elements of the cave wall to enhance the 3D realism of the figures. These were not simple scratching done at random, they were done with care and intent by people with skill.
mannerheim 5y ago
There is runic Old Norse graffiti in the Hagia Sophia that probably originally said something along the lines of 'so-and-so wrote this': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runic_inscriptions_in_Hagia_Sophia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runic_inscriptions_in_Hagia_So...

duxup 5y ago

I recall a note left on a piece of Greek pottery that said something like "<name1> made this and I bet <name2> can't do any better." Wonderful slice of some potter rivalry from long long ago ;)

rbalicki 5y ago
There's a lot of bawdy graffiti that was discovered in Pompeii: https://kashgar.com.au/blogs/history/the-bawdy-graffiti-of-pompeii-and-herculaneu https://kashgar.com.au/blogs/history/the-bawdy-graffiti-of-p...
- pizzaknife 5y ago
  this is hilarious and incredibly interesting, thanks for the link!
- delecti 5y ago
  This is exactly the example I was trying to remember. I love things like this because it helps take the past off a pedestal. We've been the same raunchy species from the beginning.

irrational 5y ago

This is exactly why I doubt all the expert opinions on cave art. "This undoubtedly had ritual significance." BS. It was probably just some teenagers screwing around.

delecti 5y ago
I wouldn't go too far in the opposite direction though. Teenagers screwing around is more likely to be lewd carvings than life-size carvings of a camel. A rule of thumb I've heard is that "ritual significance" is code for either "we have no idea" or "probably a sex toy", depending on context. In cases like this, I think the default assumption should be "probably art".
- AlotOfReading 5y ago
  "ritual" is a pretty general term that doesn't quite match its colloquial meaning and generally doesn't have anything to do with sex toys. Imagine you find an old PCB that you weren't quite sure the purpose of. Is it unfair to call it "electronic" when there's a more specific term that could be applied if you knew what its purpose was? The same objection applies equally to "art".
Tagbert 5y ago
Much of the cave art required people to go deep into hard to access areas of caves. People created the art over long periods of time. Many of the pieces incorporated elements of the cave wall to enhance the 3D realism of the figures. These were not simple scratching done at random, they were done with care and intent by people with skill.

mannerheim 5y ago

There is runic Old Norse graffiti in the Hagia Sophia that probably originally said something along the lines of 'so-and-so wrote this': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runic_inscriptions_in_Hagia_Sophia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runic_inscriptions_in_Hagia_So...