Methods for Ancient Wall Graffiti Documentation: Overview and Applications

Ancient graffiti are evidence of the past, scattered all over the globe and common to many cultures. Documentation is a crucial step for their study, and must allow for clear interpretation. There are a variety of traditional methods to document ancient graffiti, from sketches to frottages, to contact tracing and photography. Digital instruments and other innovative methods developed during recent years in the field of heritage documentation can also be successfully applied to graffiti, improving the quality of results and increasing their readability. This paper presents the principal methods used for graffiti documentation and discusses the trends over the last few decades; it also presents two different case studies where the principal methods are tested and reviewed.