In Pompeii, Italian historians are excavating ancient ruins and graffiti are popping up everywhere. Here graffiti, means traditional inscribed writing (because the word graffiti comes from Italian graffiare, to scratch). The messages are as contemporary as they can get. For instance, “Rufio painted this”, “Satura was here on September 3rd”, “Cruel Lalagus, why do you not love me”, “ If you don´t believe in Venus, gaze at my girlfriend” and more. I guess the graffiti and vandalism that is practiced today should be considered a contemporary adaptation of the traditional, better yet, an ancient form of art??
