Tablets from Botorrita
The panels of Botorrita are a series of four bronze panels that were found in the course of archaeological excavations in the old Celtiberian city of Contrebia Belaisca in what is now Botorrita in the province of Saragossa , ( Spain ).
All four panels are numbered from I to IV according to the time they were found and are in the Museo Provincial de Zaragoza . They form an important part of the extremely sparsely documented Celtiberian language , in particular Botorrita I, on which the longest coherent text in this language has survived to date.
Apart from Botorrita II, which contains an inscription in Latin characters , the other three panels show Celtic inscriptions in the Iberian alphabet, a syllable alphabet adopted through contact with Iberian culture.
Botorrita I
The tablet was excavated in 1970 in a broken state. It is dated to the period between the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 1st century BC. When assembled, the panel measures around 40 cm wide and 10 cm high. It is described on both sides, but it cannot be ruled out that they are two independent documents.
On this table, as on Botorrita III and IV, the Iberian alphabet was used, which is not suitable for accurately representing all Celtiberian sounds and groups of sounds . (For example, it can not be the difference between voiced and unvoiced plosives seen. Also, certain in the Celtiberian language existing groups with multiple consonants can be set using the Iberian alphabet is difficult to represent.) In the inscription, word and sentence boundaries are clearly marked what the Deciphering.
After extensive restoration work, the text was transliterated into the Latin alphabet . The nine lines of the text designated as "Page B" were later deciphered with the help of Botorrita II as a list of people, each of whom is identified by first name, patronymic , tribe or clan, official title and place of origin. The text on “Page A” has so far remained untranslated despite numerous attempts at interpretation by experts ( W. Meid , J. de la Hoz, JF Eska, H. Eichner and others). It consists of eleven lines and most likely contains a Lex Sacra, a law of a religious nature.
Botorrita II
The tablet, also known as Tabula Contrebiensis (Table of Contrebia), was found in 1979. This is a Latin text that can be dated precisely, because the date on the panel expressly states the year in which L. Cornelius Cinna and Cn. Octavius were Roman consuls , and that corresponds to the year 87 BC. Chr.
Although not linguistically directly relevant to the Celtiberian corpus, this tablet is important as an aid to the interpretation of the other tablets and it contains valuable information about the Celtiberian city of Contrebia Belaisca and its administrative system. Contrebia Belaisca was a kind of capital in its time, which controlled a certain area politically and economically. It is also known for the coins minted there. This legal text concerns a decision on a water dispute between two neighboring peoples: the inhabitants of the municipalities of Salduie (today's Saragossa ) and Alaun (today's municipality of Alagón ) submitted to the decision of the Council of Contrebia Belaisca.
Botorrita III
Found in 1992, this plaque is considered to be the longest Celtiberian document to date. However, the inscription has turned out to be a list of proper names, and therefore its linguistic relevance is little.
Botorrita IV
This tablet was discovered in 1994. The content is presumed to be similar to the text on Botorrita I. It is in very poor condition and barely twenty words are legible, which also makes an exact date impossible. But a comparison with the other tablets suggests that it was also used between the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 1st century BC. Is classified.
literature
- H. Eichner: Then and now: Problems of opening up the ancient Celtic in Zeussen's time and in the present . University Library, Erlangen 1989 (Erlangen commemoration for Johann Kaspar Zeuss).
- J. de la Hoz: The Botorrita first text. Its epigraphical background , In: Akten des Kolloquium Innsbruck, April 29 - May 3, 1993 . Institute for Linguistics of the University, Innsbruck 1996 (Innsbruck contributions to cultural studies; special issue 95).
- Wolfgang Meid: The first Botorrita inscription: Interpretation of a Celtiberian language monument . Institute for Linguistics of the University, Innsbruck 1993 (Innsbruck Contributions to Linguistics; Volume 76).
- Francisco Beltrán Lloris, El cuarto bronce de Botorrita , pp. 381–393.
