Q 01/05

The word graffiti comes from an Italian word meaning what?

A) Scratched

B) Painted

C) Written

D) Hidden

Answer · why

A) Scratched

The rare singular graffito is now used mainly by archaeologists.

Q 02/05

The oldest known written graffito, from around 500 BC, was found on an island of which country?

A) Italy

B) Greece

C) Egypt

D) Turkey

Answer · why

B) Greece

It turned up on Astypalaia in the Dodecanese; ancient graffiti were usually cut into walls with a sharp point.

Q 03/05

The Alexamenos graffito (c. AD 200) shows a crucified figure with which animal's head?

A) A donkey

B) A dog

C) A goat

D) A pig

Answer · why

A) A donkey

It mocks a Christian and may be the earliest surviving depiction of Jesus; it is kept in the Palatine Museum.

Q 04/05

Ancient tourists left over 1,800 graffiti on a citadel's 'mirror wall' in which country?

A) Indonesia

B) Sri Lanka

C) Cambodia

D) Pakistan

Answer · why

B) Sri Lanka

Visitors to Sigiriya scribbled names and comments there between the 6th and 18th centuries.

Q 05/05

The only known source of Safaitic, an ancient form of Arabic, is graffiti carved on rocks in what kind of desert?

A) Sand dune

B) Limestone

C) Salt flat

D) Basalt

Answer · why

D) Basalt

The inscriptions cover southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia.