Safaitic Graffiti
Over the last 140 years, explorers of the desert areas of Syria, Jordan and South Arabia have discovered over 20,000 examples of a unique style of desert graffiti. Scratched onto the rocks with flints, Bedouin tribes used this graffiti between the fourth and first centuries BC to mark territory, inscribe grave markers and communicate information. The script, which is known today as Safaitic, was incomprehensible to those in the settled regions, who spoke Greek or Aramaic making Safaitic a secret Bedouin language.
Safaitic is very similar to the southern Semitic language used in western Arabia and Ethiopia. However, its structure is entirely different, meaning it would have been incomprehensible to those outside the circle that used it. For the Bedouin, Safaitic was purely functional. It was not used to write books, tell stories or create poetry. They only used it when it was needed. Nor was it taught formerly. Its structure was also highly fluid, with spellings and use of letters varying from individual to individual. It was developed to be used purely in practical desert signposts
Men, women, and slaves created these graffiti signposts. The messages they created using Safaitic were highly personal and of limited interest to those outside their social group. Some Safaitic graffiti was used to mark the last resting place of loved ones. Others record the names of significant Bedouin families and act as a way of marking the extent of their ‘territory.’
Most, however, were of no interest to anyone other than the writer. Some were prayers. One example, now preserved in the National Museum of Saudi Arabia asks for the god E’lat, an ancient northern Arabian god, to show the writer some goodwill and grant them peace. Others expressed concerns regarding survival- rather like public diary entries. “Lkhazan prepared for the winter,” reads one such example.
It was not just the Bedouin who were worried about the effect of the climate on their lives. The Dayu Cave in China preserves graffiti with a very particular climatic concern.