Publications: Celtiberian

The first booklet published within AELAW network has just seen the light of day. The aim of these dissemination books is to provide an updated introduction to fragmentary languages of ancient Europe and their epigraphic record to all kind of audiences. The first one assesses the most known Hispano-Celtic language and the inscriptions written on it: Celtiberian.

Written in Spanish by F. Beltrán and C. Jordán (Universidad de Zaragoza), it is made of 44 pages filled with novel ad hoc maps, high-definition pictures and tables complementing the text, which has been written with clear dissemination intentions but also with scientific accuracy.

After an introduction containing historiographical aspects, the main body of the booklet is devoted to language, writing and epigraphy. The chapter “Language” offers the reader a precise definition of Celtiberian (with useful tables of Celtiberian declension) and its position among other Indo-European and Celtic languages; in the second one, “Writing”, the authors explain the adaptation of Iberian Levantine writing system to Celtiberian language, its variants and the phenomena derived from it, and also the adaptation of Latin alphabet to Celtiberian language.

A third chapter focuses on the structure of the onomastic formulae found in inscriptions, being one of the best-attested information in Celtiberian epigraphy. Finally, the fourth chapter deals with the epigraphic habit of Celtiberian peoples, born from the contact with Iberians and Romans, and also with the most Celtiberian representative epigraphic genres: tesserae hospitals and bronze tabulae. This chapter is complemented by a useful and up-to-date sylloge of Celtiberian inscriptions, the commentary of two important epigraphs (the Ibiza slab and the so-called “Bronce Res”) and a bibliographic guidance for those interested in deepen their knowledge in Celtiberian.

The short legends of the Palaeohispanic coins have been tra- ditionally analysed and understood within the epigraphic culture (Celtiberian, Iberian and “Vasconic”) they belong to. This approach has lead to a di- chotomous vision according to which the typical Celtiberian secondary legends show the first letter of their toponym while Iberian ones have an order or value mark. The study analyses and organises short legends other than toponyms (or their first letter) and order marks, but the value and undefined markers, as a whole. The result is much less rigid than the traditional model. The author also formulates a hypothesis about the meaning of the legends ban, eba, bon, etaon and etaban and a link between them.

The printed version of numismatic section of the HESPERIA Palaeohispanic Languages Data Bank (http://hesperia.ucm.es/en/numismatica.php) contains every coin legend written in any Palaeohispanic language, that is, Iberian and Celtiberian, and the language of the coins from the north-western Ebro Valley, which maybe partially corresponds to the Vasconic language.

This work is a grammatical compendium of the Celtiberian language, incorporating the data available through 2003. The more relevant phonological and morphological phenomena are reviewed. These demonstrate that Celtiberian is an Indo-European and Celtic language. Abundant epigraphic material is also presented in support of the arguments presented here.

Review and assessment from the historical, paleo-epigraphic and linguistic point of view of the documents considered, to the present, celtiberian tesserae.

The aim of this paper is the study of Celtiberian inscriptions engraved in Latin alphabet in the context of the palaeohispanic epigraphy, in order to assess their value as sources for the latinization of the Iberian Peninsula in the Republican period.

In this paper, we intend to provide an overview of Paleohispanistics. To this end we will begin by defining our research topic. Then we will handle a number of relevant questions, namely the discussions on the following Palaeohispanic languages: Southeastern language, Lusitanian, Celtiberian, Iberian and Vascon language.