Q 01/05

The word graffiti comes from an Italian word meaning what?

A) Scratched

B) Painted

C) Forbidden

D) Hidden

Answer · why

A) Scratched

Scratched. Ancient graffiti were cut into walls with a sharp point, and archaeologists still use the rare singular, graffito, for a single inscription...

Q 02/05

Some of the world's earliest erotic graffiti, carved about 2,500 years ago, were found on an island of which country?

A) Italy

B) Greece

C) Egypt

D) Turkey

Answer · why

B) Greece

Greece. The racy inscriptions were cut into rock on remote Astypalaia, showing that ordinary islanders could write before the Parthenon was built.

Q 03/05

The Alexamenos graffito, made in Rome around 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

A donkey. The caption beside it reads 'Alexamenos worships his god', a jibe at a Christian found on a wall on the Palatine Hill.

Q 04/05

Ancient visitors wrote hundreds of poems on the 'mirror wall' of Sigiriya, a rock fortress in which country?

A) Indonesia

B) Sri Lanka

C) Cambodia

D) Pakistan

Answer · why

B) Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka. Most of the verses date from the 8th to 10th centuries, and many are addressed to the women painted in the frescoes on the rock above.

Q 05/05

The word graffiti entered English in 1851 to describe ancient wall scribbles found in the ruins of which city?

A) Pompeii

B) Ostia

C) Carthage

D) Troy

Answer · why

A) Pompeii

Pompeii. Volcanic ash sealed its walls in AD 79, so the scribbles survive as a rare record of the everyday Latin its people actually spoke.