Wednesday 23 November 2011

Sex Pistols' Drawings As Important as Paleolithic Art?

A series of crude graffiti drawn on the walls of a London flat are the "Lascaux of Punk," according to a controversial claim made by two British archaeologists who compared the rude markings to Paleolithic cave art.
Found behind cupboards in the upper room of a two-storey 19th-century house at 6 Denmark Street in London, the intact graffiti was drawn by the Sex Pistols' John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten). The Sex Pistols ushered in an era of punk in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.
According to John Schofield, of the Department of Archaeology at the University of York, and independent researcher Dr Paul Graves-Brown, the Pistols "cave art" is worthy of being reviewed in the same way archaeologists examine prehistoric art. While Lydon drew the pictures, other members of the band wrote some text on the walls.
"Why should graffiti and interior spaces from 1975 not be approached with the same seriousness as those from a thousand years earlier?" The authors make the point in the current issue of the journal Antiquity.
Presenting a "layering of time and of changing relations over time," the Pistol graffiti reveals "feelings and relationships, personal and political," said the researchers.
"Whilst some of this is documented in published biographies and captured in films and documentary, this very archaeological record offers something visceral and immediate and generates unique insight," they said...
Continue reading
Rossella Lorenzi @'DiscoveryNews'

4 comments:

  1. Um...1975?
    Don't think so.
    "The drawings depict...Sid Vicious's girlfriend Nancy Spungen, "Nanny Spunger."
    Very late on then, certainly not as early as '75, as these bozos are claiming...

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  2. 2mogadonia/
    Well spotted, missed that...didn't realise that the old rehearsal space was flats and why no Glen Matlock then (perhaps eating a sandwich eh?)
    Regards/

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  3. I hear these same reputable 'historians' found some early Beatles grafitti in Hamburg saying "Yoko sucks, signed Stewart Sutcliffe" and "Fuck peace, give Pete a chance" signed Pete Best.

    Yes. Glen liked a bit of bread 'n' dripping. My mate's mum used to make me that (although not with Steve Jones' secret ingredient, I very much doubt...) :-)

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  4. 2mogadonia/
    Some people will not have a clue what we are going on about...LOL re Beatles btw!!!
    Regards/

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