Espanca script
The Espanca script (from Castro Verde, Baixo Alentejo, Portugal) is the only complete signary (alphabetical sequence) known of the Paleohispanic scripts. It is inscribed on a piece of slate, 48×28×2 cm. This alphabet consists of 27 letters written double. The 27 letters in the outer line are written in a better hand than those of the inner line, from which it has been inferred that the slate was a teaching exercise in which a master wrote the alphabet and a student copied it.
The signary doesn't exactly match any of the known paleohispanic scripts, but it is clearly related to the southwestern Tartessian script and to the southeastern Iberian script. The first 13 letters match letters of the 22-letter the Phoenician alphabet in both shape and relative order: ΑΒΓΔΙΚΛΜΝΞΠϺΤ (ABCDIKLMNΞPϺT). The remaining letters include some Phoenician letters, out of order, but also others seemingly original to the Paleohispanic scripts.
See also
Bibliography
- Adiego, Ignasi Javier (1993): «Algunas reflexiones sobre el alfabeto de Espanca y las primitivas escrituras hispánicas», Studia Palaeohispanica et Indogermánica J. Untermann ab Amicis Hispanicis Oblata, pp.11-22.
- Correa, José Antonio (1993): «El signario de Espanca (Castro Verde) y la escritura tartessia», Lengua y Cultura en la Hispania Prerromana, pp.521-562.
- Hoz, Javier De (1996): «El origen de las escrituras paleohispánicas quince años después», La Hispania prerromana, pp. 171-206.
- Untermann, Jürgen. (1996): «La escritura tartesia entre griegos y fenicios, y lo que nos enseña el alfabeto de Espanca», Arqueología Hoje 2.