the iberian ruins of ullastret
TRANSCRIPT
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!