The Scratched Voices Begging to be Heard: Graffiti on the walls of Pompeii and Today

Summary

Pompeii graffiti offers a glimpse of the real people of Pompeii. Yet, there has been very few databases made of this resource and the ones that have been made are not digital, inaccessible or incomplete. My project is to make a database of graffiti from Pompeii that is the most complete and with known placement is known. For this I will use Victor Hunink’s Oh Happy Place: Pompeii in 1000 graffiti and also my personal survey of graffiti from Pompeii. The database is made within excel, as it is the most user friendly program, can be converted to numerous statistical programs and can be limited to user preferences based on categories, placement and etc., organized by columns with useful headings to organize the placement and other useful information. In order to demonstrate the utility of Pompeii graffiti I will run various statistical tests based on the qualitative graffiti data. In reviewing the database, I separated the graffiti into the categories romantic, sexual, reference, violence, civic, greeting and religious based upon modern graffiti, thus making it more easily interpreted by younger generations. I found various authors demonstrating underrepresented groups in Roman history such as women, children and foreigners. I was able to discern literacy levels of the populus on a scale of 1 to 3, to show the diversity of literacy in Pompeii. Finally, I was able to find correlations of graffiti either spatially, using the known placement of the graffiti, and socio-economically, using Miko Flohr’s database of housing structures and popularity of roadways for public structures. My database will be shared publicly, with the goal of showing the utility of graffiti as a source for examining the Romans, sparking interest in younger generations by relating ancient graffiti to modern graffiti and creating accessibility to Pompeii graffiti as a resource.

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Contact(s): Alexa Rose

Contributor(s): Joseph O'Neill; Paul Arena

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