ABSTRACT
Graffi ti have long appealed to those interested in the ancient world. In early excavations of archaeological sites the words written on walls were instantly recognisable as being comparable to graffi ti in the contemporary world-a way in which ancient society was brought to life. Writing which appeared on objects was thought to be equally connective to the past, illuminating aspects of life which were, again, rather familiar (for example, ownership marks on pots). Indeed, the practice of writing on walls goes back to some of the earliest visual forms known. In prehistoric cave paintings, such as the famed Palaeolithic images at Lascaux, marks on the walls were taken to represent the births of both art and homo sapiens, as evidence for communication, visual representation, and beauty in early human cultures (Smith 2004). This apparent familiarity has meant that modern graffi ti has long been linked to its prehistoric antecedents (Brassaï [1964] 2002: 139); Banksy and rock art have been understood as representing aspects of the same phenomenon, and modern graffi ti sometimes explicitly references ancient precedents (Frederick 2009).
