Iberian script (Paleohispanic semi-syllabary)
Escritura ibérica (semisilabario paleohispánico)
- Date
- century V a.C. · confidence medium
- Place
- Contestania (Alcoy), Alicante, Spain
- Credited to
- Iberians (Contestani, Edetani, Ilergavones and other peoples)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The writing system of the Iberians, in which the signs for stop consonants stand for syllables and the rest are plain letters, a hybrid of syllabary and alphabet with no parallel in the ancient Mediterranean. It was used from the 5th century BC to the 1st century AD in several variants, and although the values of its signs have been known since Gómez Moreno (1922), the Iberian language remains untranslated.
It is debated whether it derives from the Phoenician alphabet (south-eastern script, c. 5th century BC) or the Greek one, and the chronology of its variants (south-eastern, Levantine, Greco-Iberian) is uncertain. The location is indicative: inscriptions range from Ullastret to eastern Andalusia.
What it led to
- lead plaques and pottery bearing commercial texts, contracts and personal names
- the minting of coins with Iberian legends
- an Iberian epigraphy that allows the study of onomastics and pre-Roman peoples