Scribbling Through History: Graffiti, Places and People from Antiquity to Modernity

265 Pages·2018·5.58 MB·English

by  Chloe Ragazzoli

Scribbling through History
i
Also Available From Bloomsbury
Origin of Writing , Roy Harris
Writing and Ancient Near East Society, edited by E.A. Slater
ii
Scribbling through History
Graffi ti, Places and People from
Antiquity to Modernity
Edited by
Chloé Ragazzoli, Ömür Harmanşah,
Chiara Salvador and Elizabeth Frood
iii
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK
1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA
BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2018
Reprinted 2018
Copyright © Chloé Ragazzoli, Ömür Harmans¸ah, Chiara Salvador, Elizabeth Frood and
Contributors, 2018
Chloé Ragazzoli, Ömür Harmans¸ah, Chiara Salvador and Elizabeth Frood have asserted
their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as
Editors of this work.
Cover image © Ömür Harmans¸ah
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission
in writing from the publishers.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ragazzoli, Chloé, editor .
Title: Scribbling through history : graffi ti, places and people from antiquity to modernity /
edited by Chloé Ragazzoli, Ömür Harmansah, Chiara Salvador and Elizabeth Frood.
Description: London, UK ; New York, NY : Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2017024384 | ISBN 9781474288811 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781474288828 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Graffi ti–History–To 1500. | Inscriptions, Ancient.
Classifi cation: LCC GT3912 .S37 2017 | DDC 411/.7–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017024384
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4742-8881-1
ePDF: 978-1-4742-8883-5
ePub: 978-1-4742-8882-8
Typeset by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
To fi nd out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com
and sign up for our newsletters.
iv
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Notes on Contributors ix
Preface C. Ragazzoli xii
Introduction C . Ragazzoli, Ö. Harmanşah and C. Salvador 1
Section 1 Graffi ti and the Landscape
Introduction Ö . Harmanşah 19
1 Th e Scribes’ Cave: Graffi ti and the Production of Social Space
in Ancient Egypt circa 1500 bc C. Ragazzoli 23
2 Christian Graffi ti in Egypt: Case Studies on the Th eban
Mountain A . Delattre 37
3 Graffi ti or Monument? Inscription of Place at Anatolian
Rock Reliefs Ö. Harmanşah 49
4 Tweets from Antiquity: Literacy, Graffi ti, and their Uses in the
Towns and Deserts of Ancient Arabia M. Macdonald 65
5 Gezi Graffi ti: Shout- outs to Resistance and Rebellion in
Contemporary Turkey C . Gruber 83
Section 2 Graffi ti and the Wall
Introduction C . Salvador 97
6 Gladiators, Greetings and Poetry: Graffi ti in First
Century Pompeii R . Benefi el 101
7 A New Look at Maya Graffi ti from Tikal E. Olton 117
v
vi Contents
8 Visitors’ Inscriptions in the Memphite Pyramid Complexes
of Ancient Egypt (c . 1543–1292 bc ) H. Navratilova 131
9 Carving Lines and Shaping Monuments: Mortuary Graffi ti
and Jews in the Ancient Mediterranean K . Stern 145
Section 3 Graffi ti and the Written Page
Introduction C . Ragazzoli 159
10 Verses on Walls in Medieval China G . Dudbridge 163
11 Graffi ti and the Medieval Margin J . Rogers 175
12 Graffi ti under Control: Annotation Practices in Social Book
Platforms M. Jahjah 189
Notes 197
Bibliography 207
Index 237
Illustrations
I.1 Spolia stone within a fi ft eenth century mosque wall in Ilgın,
Konya province, Turkey. 2
1.1 Th e monuments in the Deir el-Bahari area, Western Th ebes. 27
1.2 A graffi to on the ceiling of M MA 504. 29
1.3 Graffi ti in the centre panel of the west wall. 32
1.4 Entrance of the tomb, west wall. 34
1.5 Middle panel, east wall. 35
2.1 Graffi ti of Patermoute (inscr. 2722b; 12 × 26 cm). 40
2.2 Graffi ti of Patermoute (inscr. 2723; 7 × 34 cm). 40
2.3 Small chapel or oratory (?) in the south valley. 42
2.4 Graffi ti of John from Titkooh (inscr. 2904; 3 × 16 cm). 42
2.5 Graffi ti of Anoup from Tespania (inscr. 2906; 3 × 14.5 cm). 43
2.6 Cryptographic graffi ti of Abraham (inscr. 2921; 5 × 5 cm). 45
3.1 Karabel rock relief of ‘Tarkasnawa, King of Mira’, near
Manisa, Turkey. 53
3.2 Map of the Land of Mira with sites discussed in the text. 54
3.3 Rock image of a standing and bearded male mountain deity
at Akpınar springs near Manisa, on the slopes of Spil Mountain. 56
3.4 Suratkaya rock shelter on Mt Latmos. 59
3.5 Suratkaya rock shelter on Mt Latmos, wall of graffi ti. 60
3.6 Suratkaya rock shelter on Mt Latmos, detail of rock graffi ti. 60
4.1 A cluster of Safaitic graffi ti at Jabal Says, southern Syria. 72
4.2 CIS ii 952. A Nabataean graffi to in Sinai. 76
4 .3 A squeeze of L PNa b 105, a tomb inscription from the H. awrān,
southern Syria. 77
4.4 A rock face at Sarmadāʾ, near Taymāʾ, with a large cluster of
Nabataean graffi ti. 80
5.1 Stenciled graffi ti and images representing a gas mask labelled
‘Chemical Tayyip’ (K imyasal Tayyip ), a masked demonstrator
singing ‘Everyday I’m Chapulin,’ and the imperative ‘Tayyip resign’. 86
vii
viii Illustrations
5.2 A young man using a stencil to spray- paint on the ground a
masked whirling dervish accompanied by the invitation to
protesters that ‘you, too, come!’. 89
5 .3 A damaged N TV van covered in graffi ti, Taksim Square. 90
5.4 Banner showing Erdoğan as Hitler raising his arm with the added
exclamation ‘Tayyip, resign!’ ( Tayyip istifa! ). 93
S2.1 Bashar al-Assad and other members of his family depicted
as ducks in a graffi to in Jabal al-Zawiya. 99
6.1 CIL IV .10237. 104
6.2 Graffi to depicting gladiators in the House of the Ceii. 106
6.3 Poetic verses in the basilica. 112
6.4 Location of the message ‘Q uos LVP amat valeant ’ in the
House of the Four Styles. 115
7.1 Floorplan, Maler’s Palace (Structure 5D–65). 120
7.2 Lintel 3, Doorway 3, superstructure shrine, Temple 1 (5D–1). 124
7.3 Section of north wall graffi ti, Room 9, Maler’s Palace
(Structure 5D–65). 126
7.4 Section of the east wall graffi ti, Room 9, Maler’s Palace
(Structure 5D–65). 127
8.1 A section of a doorframe (fragment no. R 29c) with graffi ti
from Dahshur, the Pyramid Temple of Senwosret I II. 140
9.1 Textual graffi to from Catacomb 20 in the Beit Shearim
necropolis, Israel. 146
9.2 Graffi to of a menorah (seven- branched candelabrum) from
Catacomb 12 in the Beit Shearim necropolis, Israel. 149
9.3 Façade of Catacomb 20 in the Beit Shearim necropolis, Israel. 151
9.4 Graffi ti of human fi gures and obelisks, Catacomb 20,
Beit Shearim. 153
11.1 Pictographic name inscription, ‘Lewiston’, in Cambridge
University Library MS Ff.1.6, f.139r. 181
1 1.2 Post-m edieval drawing of a woman in Bodleian M S Fairfax
16, f. 9r. 185
11.3 Cat pawprints in Dubrovnik State Archives, Lettere di
Levante vol. XIII , f. 168r. 187
Notes on Contributors
Rebecca Benefi el is Associate Professor of Classics at Washington and Lee
University. Her research centres on Roman social and cultural history, with a
focus on Latin epigraphy. She is director of the Ancient Graffi ti Project and a
supervisor for the Epigraphic Database Roma. She has published numerous
articles on ancient graffi ti, especially in Pompeii and surrounding areas, and
she has co- edited the volume I nscriptions in the Private Sphere in the Greco-
Roman World (2016).
Alain Delattre is Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (U LB) and the
École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris). He researches Greek and Coptic
papyrology and epigraphy, and, more generally, late antique and early Islamic
Egypt. His doctoral dissertation P apyrus coptes et grecs du monastère d’apa
Apollô de Baouît conservés aux Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire de Bruxelles
was published in 2007.
Glen Dudbridge was Professor Emeritus of Chinese at the University of
Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy. His research interests included
Chinese popular and vernacular culture, Chinese traditional narrative,
Chinese religion, historiography and historical bibliography. He published
on China’s vernacular culture in articles as well as in R eligious experience
and lay society in T’ang China: a reading of Tai in Fu’s Kuang- i chi (1995) and
Books, tales and vernacular culture: Selected papers on China (2005). In 2013, he
published A portrait of fi ve dynasties China: from the Memoirs of Wang Renyu
(880–956).
Christiane Gruber is Associate Professor of Islamic Art in the History of Art
Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She has authored three
books, edited a dozen volumes and written over fi ft y articles on Islamic book
arts and calligraphy, paintings of the Prophet Muhammad, Islamic ascension
texts and images, and cross- cultural visual and material cultures.
ix