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© Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya - Empúries
Omeka ID 120
Empúries. Neàpolis
Greece

inscription on lead sheet, epigraphy

MAC EMP-02616

Object type
lames (plates)
Production date
-530 / -500
Fabric
-
Museum
Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya - Empúries
Culture
Greece
Discovery location
Empúries. Neàpolis
Materials
lead
Township
Escala, l' (Europa, Espanya, Catalunya, Girona, Alt Empordà)
Technique
inscription
Where is it?
Exposició permanent
Dimensions
95 x 142 x 1 mm
Description
Letter written in the Greek alphabet on a lead sheet. It was found rolled up inside a room in the Neapolis during the 1985 campaign. It is rectangular in shape and has 14 lines, although we do not know the length of these lines due to the poor state of preservation of the sides; the central part, however, is perfectly legible. The central part, on the other hand, is perfectly legible. Its reading has allowed us to affirm that it is an archaic Ionian dialect, which was spoken in the Phocaean area, with the presence of eolisms. It is a private letter, of a commercial nature, in which one person commissions the purchase and transport of certain goods from another. The mention of the Ampuritanians, of a city - probably Sagunto (Saiganthe) - and of an Iberian personage (Basped) is very important. The dating of this letter, according to philological criteria, can be placed in the last third of the 6th century BC, which makes it an exceptionally interesting document for the knowledge of the paleography of the Ionian language of the Archaic period and its influence on the Iberian alphabet.

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