Editing Graffiti (section)

=== Medieval ===
The only known source of the [[Safaitic]] language, an [[Old Arabic|ancient form of Arabic]], is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern [[Syria]], eastern [[Jordan]] and northern [[Saudi Arabia]]. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.<ref>{{Cite web |last=dan |title=Ancient Arabia: Languages and Cultures—Safaitic Database Online |url=http://krc2.orient.ox.ac.uk/aalc/index.php/en/safaitic-database-online |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180220033117/http://krc2.orient.ox.ac.uk/aalc/index.php/en/safaitic-database-online |archive-date=20 February 2018 |access-date=19 February 2018 |website=krc2.orient.ox.ac.uk |language=en-gb}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=dan |title=The Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia—Safaitic |url=http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/index.php/safaitic |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180220033208/http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/index.php/safaitic |archive-date=20 February 2018 |access-date=19 February 2018 |website=krc.orient.ox.ac.uk |language=en-gb}}</ref>

Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at [[Sigiriya]] in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kljun |first1=Matjaž |last2=Pucihar |first2=Klen Čopič |title=Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2015 |chapter="I Was Here": Enabling Tourists to Leave Digital Graffiti or Marks on Historic Landmarks |date=2015 |editor-last=Abascal |editor-first=Julio |editor2-last=Barbosa |editor2-first=Simone |editor3-last=Fetter |editor3-first=Mirko |editor4-last=Gross |editor4-first=Tom |editor5-last=Palanque |editor5-first=Philippe |editor6-last=Winckler |editor6-first=Marco |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-22723-8_45 |series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science |volume=9299 |language=en |location=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |pages=490–494 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-22723-8_45 |isbn=978-3-319-22723-8 |issn = 0302-9743 }}</ref> Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there.

Among the ancient political graffiti examples were [[Arab]] satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an [[Umayyad]] Arab and [[Persian language|Persian]] poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between [[Sistan|Sajistan]] and [[Basra]], manifesting a strong hatred towards the [[Umayyad]] regime and its ''[[wali]]s'', and people used to read and circulate them very widely.<ref>Hussein Mroueh (1986) حسين مروّة، '''تراثنا كيف نعرفه'''، مؤسسة الأبحاث العربية، بيروت، [Our Heritage, How Do We Know It], ''Arab Research Foundation'', Beirut</ref>

Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls.<ref name=green>{{cite web|url=http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/builders_marks.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070810164425/http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/builders_marks.pdf |archive-date=2007-08-10 |url-status=live |title=Tacherons on Romanesque churches}}</ref> When [[Renaissance]] artists such as [[Pinturicchio]], [[Raphael]], [[Michelangelo]], [[Domenico Ghirlandaio|Ghirlandaio]], or [[Filippino Lippi]] descended into the ruins of Nero's [[Domus Aurea]], they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the ''[[Grotesque|grottesche]]'' style of decoration.<ref name="archeology">British Archaeology, June 1999</ref><ref name="atlantic">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97apr/rome.htm |title=Underground Rome |magazine=[[The Atlantic Monthly]] |date=April 1997}}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" caption="Ancient graffiti">
File:Graffiti 4.JPG|Graffiti from the {{ill|Museum of Ancient Graffiti|fr|Maison du graffiti ancien}}, France
File:Jesus graffito.jpg|Satirical [[Alexamenos graffito]], possibly the earliest known [[Depiction of Jesus|representation of Jesus]]
File:AncientgrafS.jpg|Graffiti, [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre]], [[Jerusalem]]
File:Hagia-sofia-viking.jpg|[[Vikings|Viking]] mercenary graffiti at the [[Hagia Sophia]] in [[Istanbul]], Turkey
File:Sigiriya-graffiti.jpg|Graffiti on the [[Sigiriya#Mirror wall|Mirror Wall]], [[Sigiriya]], [[Sri Lanka]]
</gallery>