This book is the latest volume in the University of Heidelberg Collaborative Research Centre series Materiale Textkulturen. While publications in English, French and Italian dedicated to the study of graffiti have appeared with increasing frequency over the last 20 years, access to this research from a German perspective has until recently been selective. L.’s volume is, therefore, a welcome addition to the corpus of German-language studies and to the wider range of scholarship on this genre of inscription.

The book opens with an introductory chapter that effectively synthesises information pertaining to the classification of graffiti (according to form, technique and substantive description), how the epigraphic category of graffiti may be understood in relation to other forms of inscription (public/private, official/unofficial, formal/informal), and in what ways ancient graffiti compare with modern instances of graffiti type and marking practice. This survey delivers a solid foundation for the next chapter, which presents a succinct précis of literature addressing the current state of research, a clear review of methodology relating to geographical, temporal and source limits, and a coherent statement of the book's overarching research focus and underlying assumptions. In Chapter 3 L. considers the interdependent contexts of graffiti, with a view to affording the reader a framework for understanding the social structures, architectural elements and cultural practices that produced these inscriptions. The focus of this chapter is very much on the importance of writing and of the cultural and cognitive skills of reading and writing as prerequisites for the production and reception of incised texts.

Chapter 4 outlines the central idea of the book, namely the concept of graffiti interaction and how the process is represented. This idea comprises two basic elements: by its attachment to the surface on which it is incised (described as ‘Inschriftenträger’), a graffito responds to that surface and to any previously existing graffiti on that surface; and second parties (who may be named, but should be understood as the intended addressees) and third parties (all other implicitly addressed readers) respond directly or indirectly, in writing (or verbally), to the graffito (p. 106). This model satisfies the social, formal and substantive levels of communication glossed in Chapter 1. As a form of social action with a particular intention (i.e. something to say), communication constitutes the successful transfer of information, broadcast to a recipient through a particular medium. In addition to a form of social exchange, graffiti display formal and content relationships to wall decoration and other categories of inscription. Finally, building on recent applications of communication theory to graffiti production and consumption, L. summarises the variety of ways in which graffiti interact. Here, just because the incised messages will have been memorable for an indefinite group of persons, nonetheless they will be understood differently, depending on the recipient's knowledge and reading skills – and, as a result, the interactions between the encoders and decoders of these messages will produce (intentionally or incidentally) a spectrum of interpretations.

The next chapters provide a detailed overview of the data relating to the subtitle of the book, ‘Geritzte Inschriften in den Wohnhäusern Pompejis’. Chapter 5 examines the idiosyncratic structure of the CIL IV corpus, critiquing the reproduction of graffiti inscriptions and the identification of marking locations, and evaluating the relationship between the history of excavations at Pompeii since the mid-seventeenth century and developments in the way in which graffiti have been documented over this period. Chapter 6 consists of six case studies of Pompeian graffiti recorded in two Type 3 (large) and four Type 4 (very large) houses, providing a careful survey of the types of graffiti (texts, numbers and lines, alphabets and drawings), the number of graffiti in each residence (I.6.15: 22, V.4a.11: 34, I.7.1.20: 54, VI.16.7.38: 26, I.10.4: 106, V.2.1: 77), the locations in which graffiti cluster (in the main, high traffic areas like the fauces, atrium and peristyle) and the categories of inscribing person (resident owners, slaves and visitors). Clear schematic plans, colour illustrations of wall surfaces displaying graffiti in relation to the painted decor and architectural features, and photographs of internal spaces supplement this detailed examination of select elite Pompeian houses.

The remaining chapters explore overarching issues pertaining to technique, form and content, the identity of and relationship between the individuals responsible for the incised texts, and what conclusions can be drawn about the practice of graffiti writing in the Pompeian house. Chapter 7 catalogues the primary characteristics of graffiti display: namely, the various ways of cutting into, or applying different marking media onto, a durable surface; of writing text, from simple scribbles or doodles to sophisticated calligraphy; and of self-representation. Chapter 8 brings a sense of order to the producers and consumers of Pompeian graffiti, listing the variety of names included in the surviving texts – praenomina, gentilicia and cognomina; geographical, divine and calendrical designations; references to physical and intellectual qualities or circumstances; categories of age, familial relationship, profession, political office, social and cultural condition; and natural and manufactured objects – and what they tell us about the city and its inhabitants. The final chapter foregrounds the extent to which careful study of technology and form enhances existing contextual investigations of ancient graffiti.

What this study confirms is how careful historians of ancient epigraphy must be when categorising unofficial, ephemeral inscriptions as graffiti. It presents a strong argument for differentiating the intentions, approaches and cultural prerequisites of ancient and modern participants in informal inscribing practices. Unlike their modern counterparts, ancient graffiti should not be understood either as an expression nor a result of subversive action. While it is possible to identify defamatory texts directed against named, usually local, persons, ancient graffiti represent neither illegal nor political acts. Similarly, while the writers of these graffiti infrequently expressed pride in their work, they would not have regarded themselves, as many modern graffitists, as street artists: for the most part, they used the surfaces on which they inscribed their messages as media for everyday notes, messages and to pass the time. Importantly, however, L. recognises that the location, form and content of the ancient graffiti under scrutiny demonstrate the ubiquity of the graffiti habit. In the same way as honorary, building and funerary inscriptions communicated on an official, authorised level, so graffiti reflected the potential for each ancient resident of or visitor to a city or a building to be a writer. Unlike the modern phenomenon, which comprises a very particular subculture, no part of the urban population in antiquity – child or adult, female or male, slave, freed or free – was excluded.