New perspectives in the analysis of Tartessian insc

Abstract

This article pursues further study of the internal analysis of Tartessian inscriptions, with particular attention to regional variations, and what it can tell us and in what way about their content. Since the current state of the art seems to have led to a deadlock, previous proposals are reviewed to show to what degree new inscriptions challenge them, what alternatives merit consideration, and which are the clues to pay attention to. The following sections are reviewed in greater depth: the initial anthroponymic series, from which it is excluded its presumed suffix ea and it is suggested that ir may be a case marking suffix; as well as the two formular sections, those with the nuclei bare and naŕken. Of the latter, it is disputed its usual classification as a verb, and showed that the evidence supports a word boundary after naŕken.