TheEspanca script (fromCastro Verde, BaixoAlentejo,Portugal) is the first signary (alphabetical sequence) known of thePaleohispanic scripts. It is inscribed on a piece ofslate, 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 does not exactly match any of the known Paleohispanic scripts, but it is clearly related to thesouthwestern Tartessian script and to thesoutheastern Iberian script. The first 13 letters match letters of the 22-letterPhoenician alphabet in both shape and relative order:𐤀 𐤁 𐤂 𐤃 𐤉 𐤊 𐤋 𐤌 𐤍 𐤎 𐤏 𐤔 𐤕 (A B C D I K L M N Ξ O S T). The remaining letters include the other Phoenician letters, slightly out of order:𐤅 𐤄 𐤈 𐤇 𐤐 𐤑 𐤒 𐤓 𐤆 (U E Θ H P Ϻ Q R Z), supplemented by five letters seemingly original to the Paleohispanic scripts.
The Espanca signary is no longer the only known Paleohispanic signary; in recent years, four morenortheastern Iberian signaries have been published: theCastellet de Bernabé signary, theTos Pelat signary, theGer signary and theBolvir signary. Each of them has a particular sequence of signs and none of them match the sequence of signs of the Espanca signary.
Recently,[when?] an inscription made on one side of anostrakon from the site inVillasviejas del Tamuja (Botija, Cáceres) has been identified as a southern Paleohispanic abecedary, because it fits with the seven signs of the central sequence of the Espanca abecedary.