In archaeological terms, graffiti (plural of graffito) is a mark, image or writing scratched or engraved into a surface.

In many cases the graffiti tend toward the rude, with a line etched into the basilica in Pompeii reading "Lucilla made money from her body," phallic images, as well as erotic pictures.

Due to the simple nature of the graffiti, many archaeologists were early to dismiss the importance of the wall writings as it concerned life in ancient Pompeii.

This site, discovered in the 1960s, has benefited from preservation efforts, leaving the graffiti samples in their original context and remain legible.

This mix of original work and common phrases is not a miscellaneous group because of the number and composition; instead, it appears that a conversation has formed.

Many of the inscriptions found in the House of Maius Castricius that blend both image and writing have been ignored by archaeologists due to errors in the form of documentation.

One popular term found in many of the discovered graffiti walls in Pompeii was calos, a Latin translation of the Greek word for beauty.

[10] Initially starting as a form of praise for upstanding citizens in Greek pottery, calos found its way into becoming a popular Pompeian graffiti writing sometime during the first-century.

One particular description found at the market in particular is a curse placed on a woman by a former lover:I bind you, Theodotis, daughter of Eus, to the tail of the snake and to the mouth of the crocodile and the horns of the ram and the poison of the asp and the whiskers of the cat and the forepart of the god so that you cannot ever have intercourse with another man nor be f***** nor be buggered nor

fellate and not do anything for pleasure with another man, if it is not me alone, Ammonion, son of Hermitaris.Ancient graffiti has been found on sites in the Roman province of Brittania.

In 2022, a piece of lewd graffiti, dated to around the 3rd century AD, was found on the site of Vindolanda, near Hadrian’s Wall in northern England.It had a phallic description and was translated by historians to say “Secundius the shitter”.

[13] Twenty-first century scholars have found more to study and enjoy in the visual art and intertextuality of Roman graffiti.

Studying the motivation behind the marks reveals a trend for the graffiti to be located where people spend time and pass most frequently as they move through a space.

The use of graffiti by Romans has been said to be very different from the defacing trends of modern day, with the text blending into the walls and rooms by respecting the frescoes and decoration with the use of small letters.

Archaeologists can use the amount of graffiti in an area to determine the level of social interaction which took place there; since it often conveys the thoughts and name of the graffitist, it can help identify the people who were in the locations, and their ideas and actions.

American classical epigraphist Rebecca Benefiel explains, that we find more male names, simply because men would be interacting more in the public spheres.

[21] Typical techniques when studying graffiti include drawing each inscription and taking photographs if special attention is required.