Tartessian Language

The oldest known indigenous texts of Iberia are written in Tartessian and are dated from the 7th to 6th Centuries BC . The inscriptions are written in a semi- Syllabic Writing System and were found in the general area where Tartessos is supposed to have been and surrounding areas of influence.

Tartessian language texts have been found in parts of Southwestern Spain and Southern Portugal (namely in the Conii areas of the Algarve and southern Alentejo - this variety is often referred as Southwest Script ).

MEANINGS OF THE NAME

The name for the Tartessian language has three definitions: 1. The language of the city proper of Tartessos (this is the only one litterally correct); 2. the language of the eastern culter below the Guadalquivir between the 6th and 8th centuries BCE (archeologically named Tartessian); 3. The language corresponding to a set of brief inscriptions that have been found in the south of Portugal ( Algarve and Lower Alentejo ), while others have also been encountered in the Middle Guadiana (in Extremadura ) and a few in the Lower Guadalquivir. Geiven that in the zone of Tartessos proper little documentation is extant, it has been discussed whether this writing corresponds to the Tartessian language or if it is a peripheral lnaguage to Tartessos.

Therefore, the discovery of the stella called "Tartessian" do not allow the formation of a certain hypothesis. Many historians have been praised for a giving a different name to these stellae: South Lusitanian. They have pointed out that the texts do not appear in the zone generally considered Tartessian (between Huelva and the valley of the Guadalquivir ). On the other hand, the name "South Lusitanian" is inconvenient, as it implies a relation with the Lusitanian Language . Other name proposals include Bastulo-Turdetanian, Southeastern, and Algarvan.

The Turdetanians of the Roman period are generally considered the heirs of the Tartessian culture and it's possible that the word Turd-etanian is a variant of Tart-essian. Estrabón mentions that ". . . most sects of the Iberians and had historic writing and script in prose and verse and laws in metric form, which claim to go back 6000 years."

HISTORY

It is not known when the Tartessian language appeared on the Iberian penninsula. Nor is it known precisely when they started to use writing. The language appeared only in a series of stellae of unclear time period, but that correspond at the least to sometime between the seventh and fith centuries BCE. While there is a discrepancy about the writing of the mint of Salacia (Alcácer do Sal, Portugal), from around 200 BCE it corresponds with the language of the stella. There is little that can be said, unless by deciphering the mint we might know the meaning of the suffix "-ipon".

Nor is it known when Tartessian ceased to be spoken, but it can be supposed that like with the rest of the peninsula, Romanization took place fairly quickly after the conquest.

WRITING

Although for years the reading of Manuel Gómez-Moreno predominated, it has been replaced by the deciphering used by Scholl, whose work was completed by José Antonio Correa, it still hasn't deciphered all the signs and variants of the spoken writing.

EXTERNAL LINKS

Detailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia (around 200 BC)

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Tartessian Language