Graffito (archaeology)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Graffito (archaeology), (plural Graffiti), has been created by humans since Homo sapiens have been traversing this planet. There are even scratchings, doodlings, drawings, symbols, and art, etc. etched on bone pieces from prehistoric times, and possibly earlier.
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Listings of Graffito (archaeology)
The beginning categories of Graffito (archaeology) are:
- Writing system graffiti.
- Picture (glyptic) graffiti, or Iconography.
- Ostraca type graffiti, with pictures.
- Complex, merged, or multiple category graffiti.
Late (Roman) Demotic graffito
Very Late Egyptian Demotic was used only for ostraca, mummy labels, subscriptions to Greek texts, and graffiti. The last dated example of Egyptian Demotic is from the Temple of Isis at Philae, dated to 11 December 452 CE. See Demotic "Egyptian".
"Christian Magic square", (the "Sator square")
The Sator square is a Latin graffito found at numerous sites throughout the Roman Empire (e.g. Pompeii, Dura-Europos) and elsewhere (United Kingdom). It is a palindrome-(theory) which forms a word square that may be read in any direction (with theories). See Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas for alternative details, and Talk:Graffito (archaeology). The reason that the palindrome may only be a theory, is because the square may have to be read boustrophedonically.
The square reads as follows (boustrophedon):
- R...O...T...A...S
- O...P...E...R...A
- T...E...N...E...T
- A...R...E...P...O
- S...A...T...O...R
The square reads: Sator opera tenet; tenet opera sator, and is approximately: "The Great Sower holds in his hand all works; all works the Great Sower holds in his hand." (See: Boustrophedon and the Ceram Ref., pg 30. (Note: reverse direction after the first "tenet", to repeat tenet (then continue boustrophedon).
Four entry points, one per side, renders the reading of the "Magic Square", the "Sator Square": Right, Left, Upwards, or Downwards. (This is why Ceram concluded that it is the christian Sator Square.)
The "Sator Square"– Pottery sherd from the United Kingdom: [1]
The Sator Square has to begin at "Rotas", so that it can end at "Sator", basically: "The Great Sower", (i.e. the christian). See: The inscribed square
Deir el-Bahri religious graffiti
Because of pilgrims, to religious sites, there are ample examples of the Graffito (archaeology) at the Egyptian site of Deir el-Bahri. The pilgrims were of a semi-educated class, and are responsible for some of these graffiti pieces. See the section in Parkinson Ref., pg 92., (4 objects).
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