On the sidewalk, not far from where I used to live, there’s a slab where Richie and Laura wrote there names in the wet
concrete in 1949. I’ve also seen sidewalk graffiti from 1938. This is in L.A. where, I’ve been told, the mild climate allows such sidewalk scratchings to last much longer
than in most places. They also last much longer than most
buildings in L.A., but that’s another story.
So what are the oldest markings that you’ve seen?
Doesn’t polling belong in In My Humble Opinion?
Yep. But I kind of like this question, so I’m going to take the liberty of rephrasing it.
What is the oldest known instance of graffiti? For purposes of this thread, we’ll define graffiti to exclude such things as cave markings and ask about things written on actual walls which were written by other than the builder/owners.
Then we’ll move it to IMHO ;).
I didn’t see it myself, but my roommate told me that the Pyramids are loaded with the graffiti of the French soldiers who were stranded in Egypt in 1799.
George Washington purportedly carved his initials on the Natural Bridge, when he was a surveyor. I’ve seen 'em. That doesn’t make them his.
The scenic overlook at Harper’s Ferry, WVA, abounds with the signatures of Civil War soldiers, as well as more recent offerings.
Graffiti found on the walls of Pompeii
Also, here’s an interesting essay on graffiti as the focus for scholarly research. (By Jane M. Gadsby, who wishes to be credited when her page is cited.)
I hope I’m not treading on shaky ground in terms of Manhattan’s ground rules here, but I’ve seen “johnny luvs clara” type graffiti written on the walls of caves in Rock Castle Co, KY, dating back to the 1870s.
I was Egypt a few years ago, and around the pyramids theres quite a bit of graffitti (new and old). On a temple not far from the pyramids, there is some graffiti (NOT done by the builders) from the times of ancient egypt. Im not sure about any more specific time periods, but it was ancient times.
Does this count, manhatten? it was carved in. as far as i could tell, it was pictures of people. kind of stick figure-type things.
[ul]
[li]This article from The Japan Times mentions graffiti that is approximately 4,000 years old. This seems to be one of the oldest I could find.[/li]
[li]I’m not sure what to make of this site, but I’ll quote it anyway:[/li]
BTW, this is probably not the very oldest, as the author claims, but I don’t blame them for being confused about this issue.
[li]From Graffiti Art: An Essay Concerning The Recognition of Some Forms of Graffiti As Art:[/li]
[li]From the definiton of graffiti from the Dictionary of Art:[/li]
[/ul]
I hike alot in the desert southwest and way out in the middle of BFN I’ve see “Julianne” scrawaled in quite a few places. Early 1700s IIRC.
And then there’s Newspaper Rock, which by the way has a picto that bears a STRIKING resemblance to Bart Simson but of course it pre-dates him.
Late 1800’s english writing, in a cave in the lead mining regions of Wisconsin. Writing’s by children in the early 1900’s,on a sandstone bluff by a long gone school. Indian writing on sandstone, age unknown.
Not the oldest, but there is grafitti (initials) carved in the British coronation throne from back in the days when “tourism” was a new idea.
I’ve seen several examples of grafitti at Pompei.
I was all ready to nominate cave paintings made some 30,000 years ago, when I read Manny’s rules. Oh well. (But I’m going to include a link to the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc cave for anyone who’s interested, just because it is so cool.)
Talking about graffiti in Egypt reminded me of the story of Giovanni Belzoni, a former circus strongman, who started digging up Egyptian antiquities to supply the British Museum. He was the first to enter the pyramid of Khafre at Giza - but he was so concerned about getting credit for his discovery, he wrote his name on the wall of the burial chamber!
A former resident of our house made a note on the wall in our garage: Walt Battery June 22, 1946.
One of the few physical remainders of the Lewis and Clark Expedition is some graffiti carved on a Montana cliff face by (I think) William Clark. As far as I know, it’s authentic.
[url=“http://www.nps.gov/fola/regcliff.htm”]Register cliff* in Wyoming along the Oregon Trail was a popular spot for graffiti in the early 1800’s. I left mine there in the early 70’s, but I had to scratch out some guy named Jim Bridger.
An article on Pompeii that I read once mentioned some graffiti that wasn’t listed in the link above.
The Reichstaag has some interesting graffitti left from the allies. IIRC they even put up plexiglass to protect the old soldier’s comments. I wonder how often the limerick about “Hitler’s only got one Ball” appears.
The oldest graffiti that I have personally seen was on the Trevi Fountain in Rome.
I was sitting on the marble and looking at the fountain and wondering why so many people felt the need to deface such a beautiful monument by carving their names in the marble.
I felt a bit better about it when I started reading the graffiti and found one particularly deep old looking carving which was a name and the roman numerals for 1827. I wish I could remember the name! I took a picture but it didn’t come out.
I figure that if they were carving graffiti in the fountain in 1827 you can hardly get angry at the kids today!
Mr. Consistency is at it again.
I, too, have seen the grafitti in Pompeii. To be technical, though, although we know it’s all 79 A.D. or older, it was not dated (it would be “A.U.C.” or “in the x year of emperor y” or whatever, of course, not “A.D.”).
In my home town in New Jersey someone carved a date from 1863 into the steps of a church (stone steps, by the way – a determined grafittist, or one that didn’t care about his knife) which became the town library. It was July 2, 1863, if I recall. No one knows exactly why. The official town history speculates it might be the date they received word about a Civil War battle.