I was looking through a photo album the other day and came across this picture I took a few years ago when my husband and I visited Mammoth Cave. A long time ago (you can see the year '1839' in the corner of the photo) people exploring with candles burned their names into the ceiling of the cave. Surely, if you were to do this today, you would be in BIG trouble - we're talking felony because it's a National Park.
It reminds me of a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode in which Will carves his name in an old desk that the school founders carved their names in decades ago. At his discipline hearing, amongst the scolding and shame, he says something like, "They carved their names in it and got their pictures on the wall." Isn't amazing how something as simple as the passage of time changes our perspectives on whether graffiti is vandalism or history?
The word 'graffiti' comes from the Italian verb 'graffiare,' which means 'to scratch." Apparently, the term was first used around 1851 to describe stone inscriptions unearthed in the ancient city of Pompeii. Archaeologists today still use the term when referring to engravings found on ancient surfaces like columns, panels, or walls. And, just like some graffiti today, back then people wrote raunchy things and they gossiped and made fun of other people. This is the type of history, though perhaps "unimportant" in the grand scheme of things, that I think really gives people today a sense of connection with people in the past.
©2012, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder
The word 'graffiti' comes from the Italian verb 'graffiare,' which means 'to scratch." Apparently, the term was first used around 1851 to describe stone inscriptions unearthed in the ancient city of Pompeii. Archaeologists today still use the term when referring to engravings found on ancient surfaces like columns, panels, or walls. And, just like some graffiti today, back then people wrote raunchy things and they gossiped and made fun of other people. This is the type of history, though perhaps "unimportant" in the grand scheme of things, that I think really gives people today a sense of connection with people in the past.
©2012, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder
