the iberian ruins of ullastret

Spanishlinguist.usvisits Ullastret

Iberian ruins near l’Estartit, Spain

Ullastret was the capital city of the Indiketes, a pre-Roman Iberian tribe

It is one of the best-preservedIberian sites in Spain.

What Ullastret might have looked like

‘back in the day’

I found a lovely image but it’s copyrighted – click here to see it.

The Iberian writing system

• The writing system shows both Greek and Phoenician influence.• Note that some characters are alphabetic, and some are syllabic.• Some texts are written from left to right, and some from right to left.• Although the alphabet has been deciphered, the language is still a

mystery. In other words, experts can read Iberian out loud, but have no idea what the words mean.

Wall text at the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia at Ullastret

Examples of Phoenician, Greek, and Iberian writing on coins from the

area

Wall text at the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia at Ullastret

Terra-cotta figures and lead plaques provide further

samples of Iberian writing

A figure of a bull with Iberian writing(hard to see on original, left)

Wall text at the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia at Ullastret

A selection of lead plaques with Iberian writing.My book reproduces the one on upper right.

Transcription of text on both sides of lead plaque

Wall text at the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia at Ullastret

Me with “my” plaque

The obligatory plug for my book• Use order code PQ101 for a 35% discount on

Bloomsbury.com (here’s a link)• Also on Amazon.com• Check out the rave reviews on either site!