Sign of the Faithful: Cross Graffiti on Pagan Architecture in the Late Antique Eastern Mediterranean

Abstract: Christian graffiti found on "pagan" sacred art and architecture in the eastern Mediterranean have been the source of particular scholarly interest, in part because of their potential to illuminate interreligious dynamics in Late Antiquity. Scholars have primarily interpreted cross graffiti that appear on pagan religious architecture as evidence of an effort to neutralize the lingering demonic presence in these spaces or as a statement of Christian triumphalism over a formerly pagan site. This article proposes that a more careful examination of these graffiti allows for alternative interpretations beyond religious competition. By applying new approaches developed in ancient graffiti scholarship, this study reinterprets cross graffiti found at several pagan religious sites in the eastern Mediterranean: Delphi, Sardis, Aphrodisias, and Hawarte. This reexamination of the graffiti reveals that the heuristic categories of "clustered" and non-clustered graffiti are key to determining whether cross graffiti on pagan architecture may have represented acts of deconsecration or other acts of Christian communal piety, such as prayer. This approach reveals a broader range of possible Christian interactions with pagan sacred spaces and therefore expands and complicates our understanding of interreligious dynamics at these important sites in Late Antiquity.