page_title: Espanca script
hierarchical_section_title: Espanca script
caption_attribution_description: Català: Mapa d'escriptures paleohispàniques. Anglès Español: Mapa de escrituras paleohispánicas. Inglés English: Paleohispanic writing systems map. English
context_page_description: The Espanca script is the first signary known of the Paleohispanic scripts. It is inscribed on a piece of slate, 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 the southwestern Tartessian script and to the southeastern Iberian script. The first 13 letters match letters of the 22-letter Phoenician alphabet in both shape and relative order: 𐤀 𐤁 𐤂 𐤃 𐤉 𐤊 𐤋 𐤌 𐤍 𐤎 𐤏 𐤔 𐤕. The remaining letters include the other Phoenician letters, slightly out of order: 𐤅 𐤄 𐤈 𐤇 𐤐 𐤑 𐤒 𐤓 𐤆, supplemented by five letters seemingly original to the Paleohispanic scripts.
  The Espanca signary is no longer the only known paleohispanic script; in recent years, four more northeastern Iberian signaries have been published: the Castellet de Bernabé signary, the Tos Pelat signary, the Ger signary and the Bolvir signary.
context_section_description: The Espanca script (from Castro Verde, Baixo Alentejo, Portugal) is the first signary (alphabetical sequence) known of the Paleohispanic scripts. It is inscribed on a piece of slate, 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 the southwestern Tartessian script and to the southeastern Iberian script. The first 13 letters match letters of the 22-letter Phoenician 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 script; in recent years, four more northeastern Iberian signaries have been published: the Castellet de Bernabé signary, the Tos Pelat signary, the Ger signary and the Bolvir signary. Each of them has a particular sequence of signs and none of them match the sequence of signs of the Espanca signary.
  Recently, it has been identified as a southern paleohispanic abecedary an inscription made on one side of an ostrakon from the site of Villasviejas del Tamuja (Botija, Caceres), because it fits with the seven signs of the central sequence of the Espanca abecedary.
caption: Paleohispanic scripts
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