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LIVING AND DOCUMENTED CULTURE · 03

Readable scripts, only partly understood languages

The peoples of the peninsula used different scripts on lead sheets, pottery and coins.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ORIGINAL · CROP AND BLACK BACKGROUND · CC BY-SA 3.0

Documentary original · Exact correspondence

Photograph by Joanbanjo, CC BY-SA 3.0, with crop and external mask on black carried out by deterministic editing. The preserved pixels of the sheet and its signs are copied without redrawing, interpolation, colour adjustment, or sharpening. The two transparent supports are retained. It does not show a like-new state; interpretative restoration pending.

Joanbanjo · Museum of Prehistory of Valencia · Inventory: Plomo I de La Bastida de les Alcusses · CC BY-SA 3.0

Source and provenance ↗Terms of use ↗
Lead I from La Bastida de les Alcusses: photograph of the original cropped onto black, with two transparent supports preserved; incised signs without redrawing.
PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ORIGINAL · CROP AND BLACK BACKGROUND · CC BY-SA 3.0

Documentary original · Exact correspondence

Photograph by Joanbanjo, CC BY-SA 3.0, with crop and external mask on black carried out by deterministic editing. The preserved pixels of the sheet and its signs are copied without redrawing, interpolation, colour adjustment, or sharpening. The two transparent supports are retained. It does not show a like-new state; interpretative restoration pending.

Joanbanjo · Museum of Prehistory of Valencia · Inventory: Plomo I de La Bastida de les Alcusses · CC BY-SA 3.0

Source and provenance ↗Terms of use ↗

History and context

We can transcribe a good part of the Iberian signs; understanding each word and the structure of the language remains limited.

Evidence and interpretation

Synthesis based on National Archaeological Museum · Auletrix; Museum of Prehistory of Valencia · Iberian world; Museum of Jaén · El Pajarillo. The comparison serves to formulate questions, not to fill gaps in the record with certainties.

Catalogue facts

Civilisation or trajectory
Iberian peoples of the peninsula
Scope
Writing and Orality
Main area
Mediterranean façade and south of the Iberian peninsula, with communities, languages and trajectories different.

A closer look

About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: .

Names Can Be Recognised Without Understanding the Whole Document

A lead sheet preserved in the Museu de Xàbia contains up to three texts arranged in mirror fashion, whose relationship is unresolved. Its scholarly edition identifies personal names such as sakaŕaŕgi and uŕkebeŕś and analyses variants of the dual northeastern writing system. However, the authors do not find decisive elements to determine the document's function. It is a concrete example of progress without total translation: comparing signs, positions, and names allows advancement. The unknown archaeological provenance prevents transforming a regional palaeographic proposal into a secure findspot.

Location and territory

Physical world map with routes of human evolutionPresent-day world coastline from Natural Earth in an equirectangular projection. The overlaid markers let you explore each milestone.Map base: Natural Earth 1:110m · public domain · present-day reference coastline

REGIONAL AREA

Mediterranean façade and peninsular south; not all Iberia was IberianMediterranean fringe and southern peninsula; not all Iberia was Iberian. The footprint indicates the orientative centre of the area, not a boundary nor an exact point.

Sources and references

Consult the sources of this cultural synthesis

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