‘Graffiti is one of the few tools that you have if you have almost nothing’ (Banksy 2001). Like today, the practice of leaving a text or figure on an object not intended for that purpose was widespread in Antiquity. But unlike today, ancient graffiti did not generally evoke associations with vandalism, subversiveness and youth culture, and had a much wider application in all sorts of contexts. While graffiti from some sites, such as Pompeii, have been studied for a long time, it is only recently that a steadily growing group of scholars has taken these occasional scribblings seriously as a rich source of evidence for individual expression and daily life in the ancient world.
The largest number of ancient graffiti can be found in Egypt, especially on the walls of its temples. These graffiti have for the most part been inscribed for religious reasons, as it was common practice to leave graffiti on the walls of temples to secure the deity’s eternal protection. As a result, the walls of every Egyptian temple are lined with hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of graffiti. For a long time, these graffiti have been neglected as a ‘debased’ form of Ancient Egyptian religion, but in the last decade they have been increasingly recognized as a treasure trove of information about the personal piety of Ancient Egyptians. Despite these positive developments, however, there has traditionally been a much greater focus on textual graffiti, while the figures that have often been found side by side with them remain understudied, and publications of larger groups of them are rare.
The current project aims to do something about this situation by systematically studying the figural graffiti from one of the most spectacular temple complexes of Egypt, Philae. The temple island, situated on the frontier between Egypt and Nubia, was one of the main sites for the cult of Isis in Graeco-Roman Egypt, and visitors came from north and south to pay her homage leaving thousands of graffiti on its walls. Today it is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Egypt and a UNESCO world heritage site. While the textual graffiti have mostly been published, the figural graffiti from the island have been almost completely ignored. This project will redress the balance by studying the figures from Philae.
The project will thus be the first comprehensive study of a large body of ca. 450 figural graffiti from Philae, thereby making an important contribution to the study of individual religion in Graeco-Roman Egypt. In addition to its scholarly impact, the project has received ample attention from media in Canada and beyond for its use of advanced methods of recording (see next section) but also the everyday nature of the material, which makes it easy to relate to.
The project is directed by Jitse Dijkstra (archaeologist at the University of Ottawa), in collaboration with his colleagues Sabrina Higgins and Nicholas Hedley (Simon Fraser University), and is thus completely Canadian; it is funded since 2021 by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Following seven fieldwork campaigns between 2016 and 2026, it is currently in its last year, which will lead to the creation of a monograph. Since the project is using advanced methods of recording, there are lots of data to manage, in which a Research Assistant can be involved.