Coin evidence for Palaeohispanic languages

Abstract

The considerable linguistic variety in the Iberian peninsula in the pre-Roman period was reflected in inscriptions on coinage. Greek and Punic scripts were used in the colonies and cities with settlers belonging to these cultural groups. The north-eastern Iberian signary was used in the Iberian area and was borrowed in order to write the Celtiberian language while south-eastern Iberian is recorded in the south-eastern quadrant of the Iberian peninsula, including parts of the provinces of both Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. The script known as Tartessian, south-western, or South Lusitanian, about which almost nothing is known, was used on the coinage issued by the mint of Salacia (Portugal). Roman control was the reason why Latin was adopted as the language used for coin legends by many cities in Turdetania from the early second century BCE. As from c.45 BCE, the native scripts disappeared from coin legends.

Epigraphy: The Palaeohispanic Languages

“…On the one hand, humanists and numismatists have long been concerned with and interested in collecting and cataloguing ancient coins. In Spain, however, some of these coins were written in an incomprehensible script and swiftly provoked great interest (for the coins using Palaeohispanic languages, see Ripollès and Sinner 2019). As a consequence, a line of research that aimed to decipher these coin legends started to develop.…”