Tartessian is an extinctPaleo-Hispanic language found in theSouthwestern inscriptions of theIberian Peninsula, mainly located in the historicalTartessos, the south ofPortugal (Algarve and southernAlentejo), and the southwest ofSpain (south ofExtremadura and westernAndalusia). There are 95 such inscriptions; the longest has 82 readable signs. Around one third of them were found in EarlyIron Age necropolises or other Iron Age burial sites associated with rich complex burials. It is usual to date them to the 7th century BC and to consider the southwestern script to be the most ancientPaleo-Hispanic script, with characters most closely resembling specificPhoenician letter forms found in inscriptions dated toc. 825 BC. Five of the inscriptions occur onstelae that have been interpreted as LateBronze Age carved warrior gear from the Central EuropeanUrnfield culture.[2]
Most researchers use the termTartessian to refer to the language as attested on thestelae written in the Southwestern script,[3] but some researchers would prefer to reserve the termTartessian for the language of the core Tartessian zone, which is attested for those researchers with somearchaeological graffiti[4] – like the Huelva graffito[5] and maybe with somestelae[6] such asVillamanrique de la Condesa (J.52.1).[7] Such researchers consider that the language of the inscriptions found outside the core Tartessian zone would be either a different language[8] or maybe a Tartessian dialect[9] and so they would prefer to identify the language of thestelae with a different title: "southwestern"[10] or "south-Lusitanian".[11] There is general agreement that the core area ofTartessos is aroundHuelva, extending to the valley of theGuadalquivir, but the area under Tartessian influence is much wider[12] (see maps). Three of the 95stelae and some graffiti, belong to the core area:Alcalá del Río (Untermann J.53.1),Villamanrique de la Condesa (J.52.1) andPuente Genil (J.51.1). Four have also been found in the Middle Guadiana (in Extremadura), and the rest have been found in the south of Portugal (Algarve and Lower Alentejo), where the Greek and Roman sources locate the pre-RomanCempsi and Sefes andCynetes peoples. It has been suggested that Tartessian is aCeltic language.
The most confident dating is for the Tartessian inscription (J.57.1) in the necropolis atMedellín,Badajoz, Spain to 650/625 BC.[13] Further confirmatory dates for the Medellín necropolis include painted ceramics of the 7th–6th centuries BC.[14]
In addition, a graffito on a Phoenician sherd dated to the early to mid 7th century BC and found at the Phoenician settlement of Doña Blanca near Cadiz has been identified as Tartessian by the shape of the signs. It is only two signs long, reading]tetu[ or perhaps]tute[. It does not show the syllable-vowel redundancy more characteristic of the southwestern script, but it is possible that this developed as indigenous scribes adapted the script from archaic Phoenician and other such exceptions occur (Correa and Zamora 2008).
The script used in the mint of Salacia (Alcácer do Sal, Portugal) from around 200 BC may be related to the Tartessian script, though it has no syllable-vowel redundancy; violations of this are known, but it is not clear if the language of this mint corresponds with the language of thestelae (de Hoz 2010).
TheTurdetani of the Roman period are generally considered the heirs of the Tartessian culture.Strabo mentions that: "The Turdetanians are ranked as the wisest of the Iberians; and they make use of an alphabet, and possess records of their ancient history, poems, and laws written in verse that are six thousand years old, as they assert."[15] It is not known when Tartessian ceased to be spoken, but Strabo (writing c. 7 BC) records that "The Turdetanians ... and particularly those that live about the Baetis, have completely changed over to the Roman mode of life; with most of the populace not even remembering their own language any more."[16]
The Tartessian script is very similar to theSoutheastern Iberian script, both in the shapes of the signs and in their values. The main difference is that the Southeastern Iberian script does not redundantly mark the vocalic values of syllabic characters, which was discovered by Ulrich Schmoll and allows the classification of most of the characters intovowels,consonants and syllabic characters. As of the 1990s, the decipherment of the script was largely complete and so the sound values of most of the characters are known.[17][18] Like most other Paleo-Hispanic scripts, Tartessian does not distinguish betweenvoiced and unvoiced consonants ([t] from[d],[p] from[b] or[k] from[ɡ]).[19]
Tartessian is written inscriptio continua, which complicates the identification of individual words.
Tartessian is generally left unclassified for lack of data or proposed to be alanguage isolate for lack of connections to theIndo-European languages.[20][21] Some Tartessian names have been interpreted as Indo-European, more specifically asCeltic.[22] However, the language as a whole remains inexplicable from the Celtic or Indo-European point of view; the structure of Tartessian syllables appears to be incompatible with Celtic or even Indo-Europeanphonetics and more compatible withIberian orBasque; some scholars consider that all Celtic elements are borrowings.[23]
Since 2009,John T. Koch has argued that Tartessian is aCeltic language and that the texts can be translated.[24][25][26][27] However, some others, such asTerrence Kaufman,[28] have taken the view that Tartessian may be a Celtic language, but as of 2020 this proposal had not been widely accepted by linguists.[29] The academic consensus regarding the classification of Tartessian as a Celtic language was summarized by de Hoz in 2019:[30]
J. Koch’s recent proposal that the south-western inscriptions should be deciphered as Celtic has had considerable impact, above all in archaeological circles. However, the almost unanimous opinion of scholars in the field of Palaeohispanic studies is that, despite the author’s indisputable academic standing, this is a case of a false decipherment based on texts that have not been sufficiently refined, his acceptance of a wide range of unjustified variations, and on purely chance similarities that cannot be reduced to a system; these deficiencies give rise to translations lacking in parallels in the recorded epigraphic usage.
(The following are examples of Tartessian inscriptions. Untermann's numbering system (perMLH IV) or location name in newer transcriptions, is cited in brackets, e.g. (J.19.1) or (Mesas do Castelinho). Transliterations are by Rodríguez Ramos [2000].)
This is the longest Tartessian text known at present, with 82 signs, 80 of which have an identifiable phonetic value. The text is complete if it is assumed that the damaged portion contains a common, if poorly-understood, Tartessian phrase-formbᵃare naŕkᵉe[n—].[31] The formula contains two groups of Tartessian stems that appear to inflect as verbs:naŕkᵉe,naŕkᵉen,naŕkᵉeii,naŕkᵉenii,naŕkᵉentᶤi,naŕkᵉenai andbᵃare,bᵃaren,bᵃareii,bᵃarentᶤi from comparison with other inscriptions.[31]
Segmentation:iŕual kᵘusielnaŕkᵉentᶤimubᵃatᵉero bᵃare-[?]ᵃa.Tᵃa ne atᵉe.
In the texts above, there are repetition ofbᵃare-,naŕkᵉe-, tᶤile-, bᵒoii-, -tᵉero-, kᵃaltᵉe-, lok-, -ᵒonii, whereasbᵒoii tᵉero-bᵃare repeats three times, with assumablyrero as a corruption oftᵉero in Mesas do Castelinho transcription.tᶤile- andlokᵒo appear in the beginning of their sentences.
^Untermann, Jürgen (1995). "Zum Stand der Deutung der "tartessischen" Inschriften".Hispano- Gallo-Brittonica: essays in honour of Professor D. Ellis Evans on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday. Cardiff:University of Wales Press. pp. 244–59.
^Untermann, Jürgen, ed. (1997).Monumenta Linguarum Hispanicarum; herausgegeben von Jürgen Untermann; unter Mitwirkungen von Dagmar Wodtko. Band IV, Die tartessischen, keltiberischen und lusitanischen Inschriften [Monumenta Linguarum Hispanicarum; edited by Jürgen Untermann; with the participation of Dagmar Wodtko. Volume IV, The Tartessian, Celtiberian and Lusitanian Inscriptions] (in German). Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert.
^Koch, John T. (2009).Tartessian. Celtic in the South-West at the Dawn of History. Celtic Studies Publications, Aberystwyth.ISBN978-1-891271-17-5.
^Koch, John T (2011).Tartessian 2: The Inscription of Mesas do Castelinho ro and the Verbal Complex. Preliminaries to Historical Phonology. Celtic Studies Publications, Aberystwyth. pp. 1–198.ISBN978-1-907029-07-3.
Ballester, Xaverio (2004): «Hablas indoeuropeas y anindoeuropeas en la Hispania prerromana»,Estudios de lenguas y epigrafía Antiguas – ELEA 6, pp. 107–138.
Correa, José Antonio (1989). ""Posibles antropónimos en las inscripciones en escritura del S.O. (o Tartesia)"" [«Possible anthroponyms in the inscriptions in writing of the S.O. (or Tartessia)»].Veleia (in Spanish).6:243–252.
Correa, José Antonio (1992): «La epigrafía tartesia»,Andalusien zwischen Vorgeshichte und Mittelalter, eds. D. Hertel & J. Untermann, pp. 75–114.
Correa, José Antonio (1995): «Reflexiones sobre la epigrafía paleohispánica del suroeste de la Península Ibérica»,Tartessos 25 años después, pp. 609–618.
Correa, José Antonio (2009). "«Identidad, cultura y territorio en la Andalucía prerromana a través de la lengua y la epigrafía»". In Alonso, F. Wulff; Martí-Aguilar, M. Álvarez (eds.).Identidades, culturas y territorios en la Andalucía prerromana. Málaga. pp. 273–295.
Gorrochategui, Joaquín (2013):“Hispania Indoeuropea y no Indoeuropea”, inIberia e Sardegna: Legami linguistici, archeologici e genetici dal Mesolitico all’Età del Bronzo - Proceedings of the International Congress «Gorosti U5b3» (Cagliari-Alghero, June 12–16, 2012), pp. 47–64.
Guerra, Amilcar (2013):“Algumas questões sobre as escritas pré-romanas do Sudoeste Hispánico”, inActa Palaeohispanica XI: Actas del XI coloquio internacional de lenguas y culturas prerromanas de la Península Ibérica (Valencia, 24-27 de octubre de 2012) (Palaeohispanica 13), pp. 323–345.
Hoz, Javier de (1995): «Tartesio, fenicio y céltico, 25 años después»,Tartessos 25 años después, pp. 591–607.
Rodríguez Ramos, Jesús (2009): «La lengua sudlusitana»,Studia Indogermanica Lodziensia VI, pp. 83–98.
Valério, Miguel (2008 [2009]): “Origin and Development of the Paleohispanic scripts: The Orthography and Phonology of the Southwestern Alphabet".Revista Portuguesa de Arqueologia 11-2, pp. 107–138.[1]
Untermann, Jürgen (2000). "Lenguas y escrituras en torno a Tartessos" [Languages and scripts around Tartessos].Argantonio: Rey de Tartessos [Argantonio: King of Tartessos] (in Spanish). Madrid. pp. 69–77.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Villar Liebana, Francisco (2000).Indoeuropeos y no indoeuropeos en la Hispania prerromana [Indo-Europeans and non-Indo-Europeans in pre-Roman Hispania] (in Spanish). Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.ISBN978-84-78-00968-8.
Villar Liebana, Francisco (2004). "The Celtic Language of the Iberian Peninsula".Studies in Baltic and Indo-European Linguistics in Honor of William R. Schmalstieg. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory.254:243–274.doi:10.1075/cilt.254.30vil.ISBN978-90-272-4768-1.
Wikander, Stig (1966): «Sur la langue des inscriptions Sud-Hispaniques», inStudia Linguistica 20, 1966, pp. 1–8.
Wodtko, Dagmar (2021). "De Ortografía Tartésica". In:Palaeohispanica. Revista Sobre Lenguas Y Culturas De La Hispania Antigua 21 (diciembre), pp. 219–234.https://doi.org/10.36707/palaeohispanica.v21i0.411.
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