The dawn of writing in Western Mediterranean: a comparative approach to the Iberian epigraphic corpus

Project Information

ZEPHYROS

Grant agreement ID: 655938

DOI

10.3030/655938

Project closed

EC signature date 24 March 2015

Start date 15 September 2015

End date 14 September 2017

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 173 076,00

EU contribution

€ 173 076,00

Coordinated by

SORBONNE UNIVERSITE
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ZEPHYROS (The dawn of writing in Western Mediterranean: a comparative approach to the Iberian epigraphic corpus)

Reporting period: 2015-09-15 to 2017-09-14

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

This project proposes a study of all known Iberian inscriptions in a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective. The study of the Iberian corpus will be set in a broad cultural context, including the rise of the first Western written traditions and their linguistic and cultural contacts. I will focus on issues such as the Iberian adoption of exogenous epigraphic models and the level of literacy within the male and female spheres of this society. Although the Iberian language in not yet fully deciphered, its epigraphic texts represent a cornerstone of the ethnological and cultural understanding of the protohistoric peninsular peoples and their insertion within the Mediterranean world. For the time being, however, there is no comprehensive study of the Iberian corpus, which has grown considerably over the past decades. On the other hand, there has been a tendency to study the Iberian world and its written culture in an overly isolated way, without sufficiently considering the panorama of neighbouring territories, which provide significant parallels. The objectives of this project can be synthetized as follows: publication of Iberian inscriptions according to current academic criteria, including a digital open access version; linguistic analysis of these texts with a special attention to the cultural context in which they were produced; study of the Iberian written culture in a broad cultural context, including neighbouring territories such as Northern Africa. This project will therefore contribute to the understanding of the Iberian language as well as the circulation of cultural models within the Western Mediterranean. It will ultimately represent an innovative step toward the comprehension of the birth of European identities.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Papers:
‒ "La culture de l'écrit chez les Ibères", in La culture de l’écrit en Méditérranée occidentale à travers les pratiques épigraphiques, Paris in press.
‒ (with I. Simón), “Deux estampilles ibériques de Ruscino et Canohès (Pyrénées Orientales)”, Études Celtiques 43, 2017, 95-112.
‒ “Nombres comunes en ibérico y su inserción dentro de la frase”,PalHisp 17, 2017, 141-156.
‒ (with J. Francès), “Una nueva inscripción sobre kálathos de Ca n’Oliver (Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona)”, Saguntum 49, 2017, 61-69.
‒ “Indigenous naming practices in the western Mediterranean: the case of Iberian”, Studia Antiqua et Archaeologica 23/1, 2017, 7-20.
‒ (with J. Ferrer), “The Palaeohispanic writing systems”, Palaeohispanic Languages and Epigraphies, Oxford University Press, in press.
‒ (with J. Ferrer & J. Gorrochategui), “A new reading of the Iberian inscription on stone preserved in the Museum of Cruzy (Herault, France)”, Veleia 33, 2016, 259-274.
‒ (with C. Stannard, A. Sinner & J. Ferrer), “A plomo menetiforme from the Iberian settlement of Cerro Lucena (Enguera, Valencia) with a north-eastern Iberian legend, and the nature of the Italo-Baetican Series”, Journal of Archaeological Numismatics 7, 2017, 59-106.
‒ (with J. Velaza), “Epigraphy and onomastics in the Hesperia Databank”, Digital and Traditional Epigraphy in Context. Proceedings of the EAGLE International Conference, Rome 2016, 313-326.
‒ “Novecientos antropónimos ibéricos”, PalHisp 16, 2016, 87-101.
‒ (with J. Ferrer & J. Velaza), “Towards a systematisation of Palaeohispanic scripts in Unicode: synthesising multiple transcription hypotheses into two consensus encodings”, PalHisp 15, 2015, 229-271.

Books:
‒ (with J. Velaza), Monumenta Linguarum Hispanicarum. Band V.2. Wörterbuch der iberischen Inschriften, Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, in press.
‒ (with J. Velaza), Iberian: language, writing, epigraphy, AELAW Booklet 2, Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza, 2017 (Spanish version, 2016).
‒ ed. with M. Coltelloni-Trannoy, La cuture de l’écrit en Méditérranée occidentale à travers les pratiques épigraphiques, Paris in press.

Collective works:
‒ L’Année Épigraphique 2011 (2015); 2012 (2016); 2013 (2017).

Presentations in scientific meetings:
2017. Paper. “One more Roman: Romanization of the Iberian naming practices through Latin epigraphic testimonies”, 15th International Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy, Vienna.
2017. Guest presentation. “The Palaeohispanic writing systems”, Dept. of Linguistics, UC Berkeley.
2017. Invited lecture. “Langues et pratiques épigraphiques vernaculaires en péninsule ibérique: du déchiffrement des écritures à l'ère du numérique”, Ausonius, Univ. Bordeaux Montaigne.
2017. Poster. “The dawn of writing in western Mediterranean: a comparative approach to the Iberian epigrapic corpus”, MCAA Conference, Salamanca.
2016. Paper. “Indigenous naming practices in the western Mediterranean: the Iberian case”, People of the Ancient World, Center for Roman Studies - Babeș-Bolyai Univ., Cluj-Napoca.
2016. Invited lecture. « Langues et écriture en péninsule ibérique au Ier millénaire av. J.-C. », Séminaire de recherche "Histoire des mutations sociales, religieuses et politiques, de la République à l’Empire", Paris-Sorbonne.
2016. Invited paper. “Iberian lexicon and epigraphic support”, Bild und Schrift - Medienkombinationen in den eisenzeitlichen Kulturen Hispaniens, Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main.
2016. Paper (with J. Velaza). “Epigraphy and Onomastics in the Hesperia Databank”, EAGLE International Conference, Digital and Traditional Epigraphy in Context, Univ. Sapienza di Roma.

Organization of workshops:
2017 – Organization (with M. Coltelloni-Trannoy) of the international conference La culture de l’écrit en Méditerranée occidentale à travers les pratiques épigraphiques, Paris-Sorbonne.
2016 ‒ Organization (with G. Bodard, Institute of Classical Studies, and V. Vitale, King’s College London) of a Digital Classics Workshop in Univ. of Barcelona.

Research in international centres as a visiting scholar:
- King’s College London (Digital Humanitites), Septembre 2015 – Mai 2016.
- Univ. of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies, Septembre 2016.
- UC Berkeley (Dept. of Linguistics), January 2017.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The work carried out in the framework of this Marie Curie grant will have an impact in the scientific community, which is however not yet possible to calculate precisely; considering that it provides a comprehensive analysis of the Iberian textual corpus it will most probably facilitate the work of archaeologists, epigraphists and linguists, and will encourage research lines and results on the field.
Besides the deliverables devoted to basic research, I have also developed some digital resources and tools, the Unicode Palaeohispanic fonts being the most important one; this is expected to be a great boon both for scholars, students, and for future generations (see this link for further information on this aspect: http://aelaw.unizar.es/blog/scripts-past-your-computer).
Finally, thanks to all the publications done in the framework of this MSC grant, and also thanks to all the dissemination activities that I have carried out, this project will contribute to a better understanding of the Iberian language as well as the circulation of cultural models within the Western Mediterranean. It ultimately represents an innovative step toward the comprehension of the birth of European identities. One of the main strengths of this project is that it promotes a better understanding and appreciation for our heritage, both tangible and intangible, which can result in an improvement of its economic exploitation and have a positive impact on the areas under study.

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