Phoenician epigraphy in the Iberian peninsula

Abstract

For a long time, Phoenician epigraphic finds in the Iberian peninsula were few in number, leading some scholars to assume that the practice of writing was limited amongst the Phoenicians in the far west of the Mediterranean (who had therefore played almost no part in the birth of Palaeohispanic scripts). However, the increase in the number of finds and, above all, new ways of studying and interpreting the body of evidence allow us to detect signs of regular written practices in the westernmost Phoenician colonial settlements. This chapter provides a brief summary of the history of these finds and an overview of the extant epigraphic evidence (including its distribution, both geographical and chronological, and its main characteristics and difficulties) in order to infer the uses of writing, and thus the degree of literacy and development of epigraphic practices, amongst the Phoenicians in the Iberian peninsula.