Resumen de Epigraphy of the Iberian script: inscriptions in Northern Spain from Burgos to Ourense
Epigraphy is an essential scientific branch performing his functions to decipher and read but also to date better inscriptions of Antiquity. The traditional used classification of the Iberian script neglects the North of Spain and Portugal. The documents found in these regions seem to be more recent, written already during the period of the Roman Republic, but show the same Semitic languages as the inscriptions of the other regions.
Specific epigraphic details explain the indigenous and Post-Latin phonetic pronunciation and writing. Some Semitic terms got their Latin equivalents. Comparison with the older texts found in the South of Portugal and Spain reveal many similarities. The Roman tax system attested in the region has parallels in more recent texts of the region around Cáceres, Palencia, Trujillo, and Medellín. The study of documents from Medellín, proved that Semitic people had to flee from the upper Guadiana at several periods during the Punic Wars and the Roman invasion.1 But, the Semitic people fled also to the West and to the North2. The linguistic affinity between Portuguese and the language in Galicia could have a reason in this evolution.
Three main group can be exposed: 1st the system of taxes in five towns, 2nd bronze objects used in temples and as decoration in houses, one of them showing the influence of Greek mythology, 3rd two documents of burials, rare in the region, one of them is the inscription on a grave of a German soldier, in service of the Roman army, the other an inscribed urn of ashes.
