Espanca script

The Espanca script (from <a href="/facts/Castro_Verde/nFJv2wmM">Castro Verde</a>, Baixo <a href="/facts/Alentejo/73bIEXjD">Alentejo</a>, <a href="/facts/Portugal/lYzwDQ63">Portugal</a>) is the first signary (alphabetical sequence) known of the <a href="/facts/Paleohispanic_scripts/aXqoBrvv">Paleohispanic scripts</a>. It is inscribed on a piece of <a href="/facts/Slate/hSVHL6Lj">slate</a>, 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 <a href="/facts/Southwest_script/ILW2hJQK">southwestern Tartessian script</a> and to the <a href="/facts/Southeastern_Iberian_script/1Q3gLEg9">southeastern Iberian script</a>. The first 13 letters match letters of the 22-letter <a href="/facts/Phoenician_alphabet/Vr4smuYg">Phoenician alphabet</a> 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 signary; in recent years, four more <a href="/facts/Northeastern_Iberian_script/DGv6w0Wc">northeastern Iberian signaries</a> 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,[when?] an inscription made on one side of an <a href="/facts/Ostrakon/CEo79Fkj">ostrakon</a> from the site in Villasviejas del Tamuja (<a href="/facts/Botija,_C%C3%A1ceres/j6o9g7PE">Botija, Cáceres</a>) has been identified as a southern Paleohispanic abecedary, because it fits with the seven signs of the central sequence of the Espanca abecedary.

Espanca script open-in-new

Espanca script