Graffiti

History

Graffiti goes back to ancient times. It was usually for showing that people had been somewhere. Besides the fact that remains of graffiti, made ​​by the old Romans, have been found in Rome, also remains of graffiti were found on ancient Egyptian monuments and on some walls of Pompeii .
Also graffiti made by the Vikings was found.
The Vandals, a people from Scandinavia, moved through Germany further south in Europe and left traces of graffiti behind. The concept of "vandalism" is based on the people the Vandals.
The rise of graffiti in the twentieth century began in Philadelphia. In the early sixties youth gangs put their signatures (tags) on walls and buildings, also to mark their territory. Other young people and political activists copied the habit to leaf their socially critical slogans or tags behind. At the end of the Sixties this new trend also came to New York.

Meaning of the word graffiti

To explain the meaning of the term graffiti we must return to the Greek language. The Greek verb graphein means engraving, writing scratches. Derived from this Greek verb is the Latin verb graffiare, which means making scratches. The Latin graffio stands for a scratch and graffito stands for little scratches.
Graffiti, as we call it, then comes from Italian, and can be defined as the phenomenon in which images are applied with paint or a similar substance on a more or less public place or are used as a form of communication or even as a form of art. Another name for graffiti is street art.