# What was the first graffiti?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-graffiti/205255>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 3, 2003, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-graffiti/205255 "2003-10-03T03:39:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-graffiti/205255/1 "2003-10-03T03:39:42Z")

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Given the deep and universal human need to personalize things and generally leave evidence of their presence, I was curious what the first example of graffiti? That is, where was the first informal message written on a public place (and what did it say)?

Kilroy was here?

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**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-graffiti/205255/2 "2003-10-03T03:43:06Z")

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Why the ten commandments of course!

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**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-graffiti/205255/3 "2003-10-03T03:46:26Z")

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[Daniel 5:](http://www.bible-codes.org/mene-Dan.5-picture-Bible_codes.htm)

> [@](#):
>
> In the same hour came forth the fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.

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**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-graffiti/205255/4 "2003-10-03T03:58:34Z")

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Those are Johnny-come-latelies. Paleolithic cave art would take the prize, I think, but I could be mistaken.

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**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-graffiti/205255/5 "2003-10-03T04:00:11Z")

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The [Lascaux Cave Drawings?](http://www.culture.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/) 15,000 BCE.

Or did you want a written message? If so, I nominate [“Romanes eunt domus.”](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0079470/combined)

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-graffiti/205255/6 "2003-10-03T04:01:00Z")

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More to the point, there wass graffiti in ancient Egypt and Rome.

And some of it was exactly what you would expect.

[Porn in Ancient Rome](http://www.libidomag.com/nakedbrunch/porninrome.html)

> [@](#):
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> “Here Harpocras has had a good fuck with Drauca for a denarius.” (C.I.L. IV, 2193; graffiti in a brothel at Pompeii)
> 
> “Celadus the Thracier makes the girls moan!” (C.I.L. IV, 4397; graffiti in the Pompeiian barracks of the gladiators)

Good old Harpocras. Wonder if he was an ancestor. {Inside joke.}