The last few years have been marked by a renewed interest in the study of graffiti scratched into the plaster covering the walls of mediaeval buildings. These studies have concentrated either on inscriptions and coats-of-arms of Western pilgrims or on ship-graffiti, also known as akidographemata, scratched or carved predominantly into the walls of Christian monuments, churches and monasteries. In fact, the practice of scratching, carving or drawing graffiti, and especially those of ships, onto the walls of religious buildings was very widespread, extending in the east to Isfahan, in the south to the first cataract of the Nile, in the north as far as Helsingör, and in the west to the Rhine Valley.