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A Note on Ancient Hispanic Orthographic Signs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

James M. Anderson*
Affiliation:
University of Calgary

Extract

The Hispanic peoples of pre-Roman Spain and Portugal employed a curious semi-syllabic writing system whose orthographic signs were derived from Graeco-Phoenician and Aegean sources (Anderson 1975). The script seems to have been brought to the Iberian Peninsula by Eastern Mediterranean seafarers sometime during the middle or early half of the first millennium B.C.

Of interest here are several ancient signs of rare occurrence, namely, and ↑ or found, for example, in inscriptions from southern Portugal and Andalucia. A partial illustration of a text from Portugal which reads and one from Andalucia, the Gador lead tablet, which contains the sequences places the signs in question in brief context.

Type
Remark/Remarque
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1983

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References

Anderson, J. M. (1975) Ancient Hispanic Inscriptions. University of Calgary: Occasional Papers No. 3. Dept. of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Diringer, D. (1968) The Alphabet (Third Edition). Hutchinson and Co.: London.Google Scholar
Gimbutas, M. (1973) “Old Europe c. 7000-3500 B.C.” The Journal of Indo-European Studies 1:1: 120.Google Scholar
Gimbutas, M. (1982) “Old Europe in the Fifth Millenium B.C.” The Indo-Europeans in the Fourth and Third Millennia B.C. E. Polome, ed. Karoma Publishers: Ann Arbor, Mich. 160.Google Scholar