Page 67 - Manual of Roman Everyday Writing Volume 2: Writing Equipment

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While inscriptions generally called ‘graffiti’ on pottery were mostly
made when the object or vessel was intact and functional, the
term ostracon designates a pottery sherd or broken vessel that was
repurposed as writing material. The best-known use of ostraca is in
classical Athens where pieces of pottery with scratched inscriptions
were used as voting ballots. The term is now used more widely and
applied to other geographical areas and periods, but ostraca are more
commonly found in the Graeco-Roman east and in Egypt than in
the northwestern provinces. Texts on Roman ostraca are normally
a bit longer than the common graffiti and they were often written
with ink. They include notes, lists, accounts and letters (Sarri 2018,
77–79). An important site with finds of Latin ostraca is the military
camp in Bu Njem (Libya, Marichal 1992a).
Many handwritten inscriptions are related to trade and the production
and distribution of goods. These include tituli picti/dipinti on amphorae
(e.g. Ehmig 2003, 49–72) and graffiti on wooden barrels (e.g.
Frei-Stolba 2017).
Fig. 42: Plate with a graffito letter from Pförring (Germany), Other materials on which handwriting can be found occasionally
2nd century CE(?). Archäologische Staatssammlung are bone, e.g. graffiti on tokens, or owners’ and producers’ marks
München, inv. 1993,3507. © Archäologische Staatssammlung on leather (Baratta 2008).
München, Manfred Eberlein, reproduced by permission
from Kommission für Bayerische Landesgeschichte.

People also scribbled onto objects: metal vessels and objects with
graffiti are sometimes found (see e.g. Lieb and Speidel 2003), but
the most frequent objects to carry graffiti are ceramic vessels. Most
graffiti on ceramic vessels were made after firing (post cocturam),
presumably by the users or owners of the vessels. Innumerable
examples are preserved from all over the Roman empire. In addition
to names, marks, drawings/patterns and religious inscriptions,
administrative texts are sometimes found, such as the lists from La
Graufesenque (France) that helped the potters record the vessels in Fig. 43: Roman leather shoe sole with graffito from
the kilns (Marichal 1988; Mullen, 2021a). Longer texts on pottery London (UK). RIB 2445.27. Reproduced by permission
are otherwise rare in the Roman west, one example is a letter from from the CSAD and the Haverfield Trust.
Bavaria (Germany, see Thüry 1996).