Inscriptions cover a range of topics from poems, advertisements, political statements, to greetings. Although many forms of Roman graffiti are indecipherable, studying the graffiti left behind from the Roman Period can give a better understanding of the daily life and attitudes of the Roman people with conclusions drawn about how everyday Romans talked, where they spent their time, and their interactions within those spaces. Other graffiti took on a more innocent nature, taking the form of simple pictures or games. 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. There have been numerous examples found on sites of the Roman Empire, including taverns and houses, as well as on pottery of the time. Medieval Graffiti: The Lost Voices of England’s Churches by Matthew Champion is out now from Ebury Press.In archaeological terms, graffiti (plural of graffito) is a mark, image or writing scratched or engraved into a surface. Champion acknowledges that his work has concentrated on east and south England, but more medieval graffiti is “out there - just waiting to be discovered after centuries of hiding in the shadows.” 17th-century memorial inscriptions, Norwich Cathedral, Norfolk Crosses discovered in English medieval churches Late medieval ship graffiti, Norwich Cathedral, Norfolk Possibly allegorical bird and tree at St Andrew’s Church, Field Dalling, Norfolk Medieval Graffiti is an accessible introduction into a side of medieval life that only occasionally appears in records, and shows there are still discoveries to be made even in these extensively documented churches. Yet the finding of a mark like the pentangle “in medieval churches has in the past few decades caused disquiet among local church authorities, who believe it to be a sign of improper practices taking place in the church building.” Champion adds that “the fact that such finds often lead to them being ascribed to modern Wiccans, devil worshippers or hoaxers is a sign of just how mentally remote we are today from the commonplace beliefs of the medieval church.”Īlong with the protection marks are illustrations of ships, caricatures, windmills, mason signatures, and other mementos of everyday life. Last February, graffiti in a Cambridgeshire church revealed a memorial for three sisters from a tenant farmer family who died in a 1515 plague, a history not remembered anywhere now aside from the family’s writing on a church wall. Champion notes that his study of medieval graffiti isn’t the first, although most research in the past concentrated on an individual church rather than a region.

Transfiguration of wine into the blood of Christ in a communion service was often considered something literal, rather than figurative, so it wasn’t outside the realm of belief that a symbolic carving in this sacred space had transformative power. Magic was practiced across Christian classes, although not necessarily as we’d describe it today.

Late medieval demon from the east face of the chancel arch, St Mary’s church, Troston, Suffolk A medieval demon with a flesh hook in St Mary’s church, Beachamwell, Norfolk

Medieval graffiti