Los abecedarios íberos: cuestiones, paralelos y revisiones

Abstract

This paper presents a critical review of the Ancient Iberian inscriptions of the abecedaria type (texts consisting in series of signs without linguistic meaning; usually a complete or partial listing of the letters of its writing system). The review pays special attention to the comparative epigraphy method (with a discussion of the parallels in other epigraphies and their usual purposes), but it also looks for a better rationale and a more specific determination of the purpose of these abecedaria, beyond the recurring generic non-specific considerations. This review concludes also that some of the inscriptions published as likely abecedaria should in fact being excluded from the list, while others should be included as abecedaria or as candidate to abecedaria.