Iberian settlement of Cabezo de Alcalá, in Teruel, in the south of Aragon
Almost a thousand inscriptions on ceramic objects capture the voice of the inhabitants of an Iberian city in their daily tasks. His end was violent and sudden, but he left behind an intangible treasure: the trace of writing, not from kings or heroes, but from ordinary people who wrote on their belongings.
An archaeological site in Teruel, in the Aragon region, houses the largest written file of pre-Roman Spain.
These are not papyrus scrolls or large stone steles. They are almost thousand registrations, engraved on containers, plates and weights, which capture the voice of the inhabitants of an Iberian city in their daily tasks, just before a military conflict to have erased of the map.
A detailed study of this exceptional set, presented in a publication in December in the magazine Paleohispanicreveals the extent to which writing was part of Iberian society — not as a privilege of the elitesbut as a practical tool in the kitchen, pantry and commerce.
The setting is , a hill that dominates the plain just 1.5 kilometers from the town of Azaila, in Teruel. Between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, this place, whose original name is unknownwas a settlement of the Sedetans, an Iberian people who maintained contact — and sometimes conflict — with the Celtiberians of the region.
His end was violent and sudden: recent studies place its destruction between 76 and 72 BC, in the context of Sertorius’ warsan episode of the Roman conquest that devastated the Ebro valley, says the .
Excavations have brought to light the remains of this mysterious city, but its TRUE treasure is intangible: the trail of writing.
With 998 registered entries, Azaila has the largest collection of epigraphy paleohispanic, according to the study’s author, Aránzazu López Fernández, from the University of the Basque Country. To put it into context, just one site in the south of France, Ensérunerivals it in the number of ceramic graffiti.
A. López Fernández
Map of Cabezo de Alcalá with the location of epigraphic finds
Far from the solemnity that we find in funerary stelae or in bronze treaties, writing in Azaila was domestic and utilitarian. The study classifies applications into two main groups: domestic and commercial use.
Already “luxury” dinnerware, black lacquer ceramic plates and bowls imported from Italy, the inhabitants of Azaila recorded brief inscriptionsoften one or two letters, in discreet locations, such as the base or foot.
There is an apparent desire to ‘hide’ inscriptionsthe study notes. Why? THE hypothesis is twofold: identify the item when storing it (imagine marking the underside of a plate to know whose item it belongs to on a common shelf) and, perhaps, out of a desire to not visually “spoil” a valuable object.
In contrast, in locally made ceramicsin Iberian style, the texts are longer, the largest letters and are placed in clearly visible locations, like the center of the wall of a container. Here, the message appears to have needed to be read during the everyday use, without aesthetic concerns.
In the field of economy, amphorae, used to transport liquids such as wine or olive oil, are the most eloquent supports. In them everything was written down: personal names, numbers, indications of weight or content.
Techniques also vary: alongside incised graffiti appear stamps and painted inscriptions, the latter typically Roman and used to add specific information about the productsuch as your destination or tax control.
Deciphering these messages is not easy. Many are crypticsimple initials or marks. Almost a third of all applications are monoliteraisconsisting of a single letter. But among them arise personal nameswhich offer clues about who lived there.
On one of the most interesting pieces, a black varnish plate, you can clearly read the inscription foreskinññiwhich experts decipher as etesike-en-ni, where etesike would be the name and -en-ni would be possessive particles — something like “belonging to Etesike“.
Graffiti on a piece of ceramic found in Cabezo de Alcalá
Additionally, longer words that are not proper nouns appear. The study suggests that these could be common nouns of everyday vocabulary, useful indications about the contents or use of the container.
One of the most suggestive words appears on two amphorae: belenos. Experts believe that it may have been taken from the neighboring Celtiberian language, and designate “meimendro“, a poisonous plant with medicinal uses, which may have been transported in these containers mixed with wine or mead.
Not everything is letters. 10% of the set consists of non-alphabetic marks: X, l shapesvertical lines, crosses, even a five-pointed star in a set of black varnished crockery. These marks formed a symbolic repertoire widely understood in the ancient Mediterranean.
Their presence, especially in weights, reveals something crucial: the use of signals to distinguish objects it was a widespread practice, even among those who might not have completely mastered alphabetic writing. It was another layer of a practical and shared language.
One of the most significant discoveries is the evidence of intense contact and pragmatic between worlds. Although the overwhelming majority of texts are in Iberian language (96.2%), the most common writing medium is Roman typology: black lacquered ceramics.
In addition, there are a few small but significant 3.8% of entries in Latin and, on commercial materials such as amphorae, Iberian graffiti mixes with stamps and notes painted in Latin.
This table shows economic cooperation. The production of amphorae and their contents, probably wine or olive oil, was of Roman origin. They were then acquired and marked by traders or indigenous users. As the study concludes, amphoric epigraphy illustrates an Ibero-Roman collaborative trade.
Analysis of Azaila’s file requires a change of perspective about writing in Iberian society. It was not a marginal phenomenon nor reserved for monumental contexts.
The functionality of Azaila’s texts cannot be explained solely in the property perspective, as has been done until now, says the researcher.
These messages sought to do everythingfrom identifying the owner of a dish, assigning its use in a shared house, indicating the weight of an amphora for sale or noting its contents, and demonstrate a writing habit in ancient societies, at least a minimum knowledge of how to write, which implies social familiarity with it.
Ultimately, Azaila offers us an exceptional photograph, frozen in time just before its destruction. The image is not of kings or heroesbut of ordinary people who wrote on their belongings.
Few sites have provided such a broad overview of its epigraphy, and this makes Cabezo de Alcalá de Azaila an exceptional and indispensable testimony for the study of literacy in Iberian society, concludes the article.
