Much of the diversity between different groups of people is due to geography, time, culture and language. The different foods we eat, books we read, and homes we inhabit all to some degree reflect this. However, there is also much about the ways we think and behave that are universal. One way to see this is through a pastime that many humans, for whatever innate reason, seem to take a liking to – writing on the walls.
Ancient Assyria
It is around 710 BC and the Assyrian Empire holds sway over a vast area of the Near East. For its king, named Sharrukin, a new palace was not enough to celebrate his power. Like many Assyrian kings, he was a man of luxurious tastes. So instead, he previously ordered the construction of an entirely new capital city and named it for himself.
In the middle of that city, Dur-Sharrukin, two guards stood at attention outside the palace gates. Two huge statues of human-headed winged lined flanked both sides of the great door. The guards watched the sun set beyond the horizon, the black outline of the city’s walls and towers in stark contrast against the rays of the red disc. As the palace was slowly plunged into darkness, the guards finally lit two torches. This act signaled the beginning of the most boring part of their job: night shift.
Few people could enter the king’s palace during the day, but during the long hours of the night, the palace was locked up tight. So, the guards were left to stand by that winged bull-guarded gate and keep watch. To pass the time, they talked among themselves, chatting about the latest gossip in Dur-Sharrukin and maybe what their families were doing in other parts of the Empire. If they were particularly brazen, maybe they would have hidden a wineskin or cask of beer nearby, to sneak gulps of alcohol in late night hours.
One thing for sure though, is that these guards played games. With the sharp tip of their dagger, one guard walked over to one of the statues and carved a series of squares. This formed the board of the “Game of Twenty Squares”, a popular board game during this ancient period. We know this because that very same statue now stands in the British Museum. You can still see that carved gameboard today.
Stuck in Detention
Fast forward to modern times. Somewhere, sometime, two high school students sit in detention. The reason why is not important. They could have missed attendance too many times, got into a fight, or were rude to a teacher. Regardless, now they sit in an empty classroom, just the two of them. The teacher supervising detention is asleep, busy marking, or on the phone with a spouse saying they’ll be home late. To kill time, the students take a pen and scratch, among all the f-words and other things scrawled on the detention room desks, a series of lines, x’s, and o’s. They play tic-tac-toe and just like the Assyrian soldiers they use graffiti to make a situation less dreary.
Bathroom “Wisdom”
Let’s return to the graffiti on the detention room desks. There are drawings of genitalia and cartoons, sarcastic comments, crude hints about who is sleeping with who, and even plenty of hearts. You can find similar things on the walls of bathroom stalls or tables in bars. Their authors often add comments, sometimes creating whole collections of small paragraphs, crossed out words, and arrows pointing every which way. Eventually, because it is all defacement, a janitor will come and cover it up. Sooner or later, someone will start with one more graffitied comment and then the process starts again. However, while janitorial paint removes graffiti, there is something that can keep it visible forever: volcanic ash!
When in Rome
In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius in Italy erupted. From its summit, a combination of molten lava, hot ash, and a noxious cloud of subterranean gases descended on the valleys below. The result was the destruction of four Roman cities: Oplontis, Stabiae, Herculaneum and Pompei. The last two are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the site of an archeological excavation that has recovered over 1500 bodies. The volcanic debris served to preserve the buildings and inhabitants of those two cities for almost 2000 years. The casts of recovered bodies make eerie viewing. They look as if a bunch of real people are lying on the ground covered in paper mache. The buildings are so well preserved graffiti carved by their Roman occupants can still be read today.
The walls of Pompei bars and brothels read like something written on the furniture of a university dorm room. Their Roman authors list sexual partners and describe sexual conduct. One wall says, “On June 15th, Hermeros screwed here with Phileterus and Caphisus”, while “Sollemnes, you screw well!” sounds like the modern day “For a good time call ….”. However, there are others that are more in line with pulling heartstrings. One such reads “Vibius Restitutus slept here alone and missed his darling Urbana.”
Pop Culture References
Many examples of Roman graffiti can be crude. Yet, there are examples that are also complex and profound. For example, the graffiti “I sing of cloth-launderers and an owl, not arms and a man” which is found on the ruins of a Pompei shop, references the opening lines of Virgil’s Aeneid. But the writer knows they are not a prince of Troy, and only a humble laundry worker. Today, similar graffiti might instead reference popular song lyrics or a TV show like Game of Thrones.
Many movie fans will be familiar with the scene in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction when the gangster characters played by John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson shoot a young man in a drug deal gone wrong. I used to have a poster showing these two but with their guns replaced with bananas. However, the original is street art by the British artist Banksy. His work is often very complex, but it is usually as graffiti on the sides of public buildings. He is still active today, as is the controversy surrounding his vandalism.
Political Messaging
Nuanced or not, many complain about the presence of graffiti in local streets. The Roman historian Plutarch laments such public defacement saying the messages are never useful or pleasing, only full of ridiculousness. However, Plutarch also contradicts himself in his account of the assassination of Julius Caesar. No doubt, Brutus was torn over killing his former friend and benefactor. Yet, according to Plutarch, Brutus was finally convinced the Roman people wanted Caesar dead when he saw graffiti asking for it. In the modern era, such messages are familiar. In the early 1970s the phrase “Dick Nixon Before He Dicks You” was common in the US. Similarly, I recall seeing STOP HARPER stop signs when I was in university, referencing the then Canadian prime minister. In all periods it seems, graffiti can be more than scatological commentary.
A Bonding Experience
It is 12 000 years ago in what is now Columbia and several hunters meander through the trees. They march in a loose group, their wooden flint-tipped spears clutched in both hands and pointing upwards into the sky. Above them, clouds swirl over the sun and the light begins to fade. Storm winds whip through the leaves of nearby trees and tropical birds end their mating calls to take shelter. In the distance, thunder booms as raindrops begin to fall. The men and women in the hunting group brush water droplets from their foreheads and bodies. They move quickly before finally relaxing. They have made it to their shelters and under its overhanging rocks, they are safe.
Within those caves the hunters’ day is not yet over. With the light of fire, they use pigments and natural dyes to draw on the walls, sharing their day’s adventures with not only themselves, but also eventually with us today.
Archeologists excavated these Amazonian caves from 2017-2018. But in late December, they released some truly amazing images. The cave art appears to depict various animals that were alive during the last ice age: American camelids, a mastodon (like a mammoth), and even a giant sloth. All examples of megafauna that went extinct thousands of years ago. There are also pictures of other animals, including birds, dogs, deer, and pig-like peccary. However, more than just the animals interested these cavers. In between animals and geometric shapes, there are images of human beings all shown holding hands, fat or pregnant, but also presumably happy. The cave-dwellers were people interested in each other.
Graffiti can tell us about the human condition across time and space. Just like the palace guards’ gameboard in Dur Sharrukin, the big game hunters drew these pictures as a way of passing the time. Like us they laughed, told stories, and bonded with each other. While they crushed ochre to paint the cave walls with their graffiti, people today use pen to leave messages of friendship. The proof has come to us over thousands of years, as have Roman messages of friendship preserved with ash.
We two dear men, friends forever, were here. If you want to know our names, they are Gaius and Aulus.
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