Inscribed Lead Tablets from the Ancient western Mediterranean

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation consists of a catalogue of those inscribed lead tablets found in the Western Mediterranean which can be dated to between the late sixth and the late first centuries BCE. In other words, it includes all the inscriptions on this medium that can be placed between the earliest examples and the end of the Roman Republic. The reign of Augustus represents a milestone in terms of epigraphic habits, generally speaking but also, in particular, regarding the use of lead tablets as a medium for inscriptions. From a geographical point of view, the Western Mediterranean has provided us with inscriptions coming from Sicily, Italy, the coasts of Gaul and Spain, and the western part of the Roman province of Africa, namely the region of Carthage. As far as the language of the texts is concerned, it has to be reminded that, before the Roman conquest and much later after it, this whole area was inhabited by a series of peoples speaking very different languages, both Indo-European and non-Indo-European. The main part of the corpus is written in Greek and, more precisely, in the Doric dialects from Sicily and southern Italy, though there are also inscriptions in Ionic and in Koine Greek, alongside many instances of dialect mixing. The Italic branch has provided us with lead tablets inscribed in Oscan and Latin, as has the Celtic family, with a few texts in Gaulish and one in Celtiberian. Another important part of the catalogue entries come from non-Indo-European speaking regions. The second main contributor to the corpus is Iberian, a language in which more than one hundred lead sheets, coming from the coast between the River Hérault in southern France and the River Segura in Murcia and Alacant, are written. The Etruscans have also yielded several documents. In Punic there are only a handful of lead tablets, of which only one has been read so far, while three sheets from modern-day Andalusia, inscribed in the local, semi-syllabic script, does not appear to be in Iberian but in a language which might correspond to Turdetanian, still very badly known. As for the type of inscriptions found on lead tablets, curses or defixiones continue to be the most numerous group of texts. They are written not only in the three colonial languages—Greek, Punic, and Latin—, but also in Oscan and Etruscan, whereas the use of binding màgic among the Iberians has not yet been confirmed. Other religious inscriptions, such as leges sacrae or abecedaria, are also attested. Besides, we cannot disregard the abundance of inscriptions on lead belonging to the sphere of everyday life, such as private letters, contracts, and, above all, a set of Iberian sheets concerning economic activities. In these, despite our difficulties in understanding the language, there is no doubt that numerals, measurement units, and words belonging to the lexical field of money are mentioned next to personal names.

El nucli d’aquesta tesi doctoral està integrat per un catàleg de les làmines de plom inscrites del Mediterrani Occidental que poden datar-se entre la fi del segle VI i la fi de l’I ane, és a dir, dels primers testimonis fins a la caiguda de la República. D’un punt de vista geogràfic, la regió ens ha fornit inscripcions procedents de Sicília, Itàlia, les costes de la Gàl·lia i de la península Ibèrica, i l’àrea de Cartago. Quant a la llengua dels textos, la major part del corpus és escrit en grec i, més precisament, en els dialectes dòrics de Sicília i del sud d’Itàlia, encara que hi ha també inscripcions en jònic i en grec koiné, a més de nombrosos exemples de barreja de dialectes. La branca de les llengües itàliques ens ha proporcionat ploms escrits en osc i en llatí, com també la família cèltica, amb qualque text gal i un de celtibèric. Pel que fa a les regions de parla no indoeuropea, la segona llengua més emprada al corpus és l’ibèric, amb més de cent ploms provinents de la costa entre el riu Erau a Occitània i el riu Segura a Múrcia i Alacant. La resta dels documents estan en etrusc o en púnic, si bé resten tres làmines andaluses, inscrites en l’escriptura semisil·làbica local, que no semblen en llengua ibèrica sinó probablement turdetana, encara molt mal coneguda. Quant al tipus d’inscripcions presents als ploms, les tauletes de maledicció representen el grup més nombrós de textos. Es documenten encara altres inscripcions religioses, com les lleis sagrades o els alfabetaris. D’altra banda, no pot ésser menystingut el nombre de ploms enquadrables dins l’esfera de la vida quotidiana, com ara lletres privades, contractes i, sobretot, un conjunt de làmines ibèriques que testimonien activitats de tipus econòmic, làmines en les quals no hi ha dubte que s’esmenten numerals, unitats de mesura i termes del camp lèxic de la moneda al costat de noms personals.