Dear Luisma,

The Castellon Lead Tablet is so-called because it was found at Castellon de la Plana in the Spanish Levant.

It is generally believed to be an execratio (a curse) because it was discovered in a tomb next to the ashes of the deceased.

It is displayed in the National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.

I cannot offer a complete translation. This would require a detailed knowledge of Iberian grammar and syntax, and the abbreviated forms which may be used in inscriptions. All I can do is identify and analyse some of the individual elements. The full meaning remains unclear.

While I cannot be certain that the inscription actually is an execratio, it is clearly votive in character. This is evidenced by the presence of five deity names, and the use of the verb form, baideski/baides, which is employed in votive texts (it is also found on the El Cigarralejo and Ullastret Lead Tablets).

Below is my transliteration. I have separated the words as I consider appropriate, and where a b/p, d/t or g/k sign is used, I have picked the alternative which is present in the Basque cognate (where this can be identified).

I have coloured deity names red, personal names blue, verb forms green, the ju "mantra" purple and copulatives orange.

M(A)BARDIAIGIS : ABARJEIGI TE : SINEBETIN URKEKERE-RE : AURRUNI-BEI-GEAI ASTE-BEI-GEAI-E : EKAR JU : ATUN JU : BO DU EI : BAIDESKI : EKUSU : SOSINBIUR-U : BORBERON JU KOSO JU BAIDESKI BERRIKAR SEN-SE : ULDITEKERAIGAS-E : ARGITIKERAIGAS BALKEBIURAI(G)ES BAIDES BANI EKAR-SE

Deities

All five deity names have characteristics in common with personal names, in that they contain two compound elements also used in personal names.

So how do we know they are deity names?

Well, they incorporate additional elements which are frequently found in deity names, but not in personal names: -aigas, -aigis, -jeigi, -ai(g)es; and koso.

Most Iberian deity names which are recorded in classical sources are found either in the North-West of the peninsula or in the Central Pyrenees. Very few deities from the region of the Iberian alphabet inscriptions are known from Roman inscriptions or from Roman or other classical texts.

The deity names found in the North-West frequently contain a suffix rendered by Romans as -aicus, -aigus, -ecus, -egus, etc. This would appear to represent an Iberian -aigi/-aiki, and we find the element in an un-Romanised form as a prefix in Aegiamunniaegus (*aigi-amuni-aigi "exalted one, grandmother, exalted one"), recorded on a Roman era inscription found at Viana del Bollo, Galicia (and subsequently lost).

This element is probably cognate with Basque jaiki/jeiki "to get up, rise", and may mean "the exalted one".

Only one of the numerous deities recorded on Roman era inscriptions in the Central Pyrenees contains this element. That is Aegass-is, recorded on an inscription at Galie, Haute-Garonne. Note the final -s (not the Roman addition). This is also found on three of the deity names recorded on the Castellon Lead Tablet.

M(a)bardiaigas "the exalted one of the abundance of bright colour"

m(a)bar is a local variant of nabar, which is identical in form and meaning to Basque nabar "brightly coloured". In the coastal region, n and m seem to have been partly interchangeable, a feature found in the Basque word pair nerabe/mirabe "youth, servant" (abiner in Iberian). The m-sign is normally syllabic and multi-aspect, so the posterior a is not represented.

-di could be the same as -di, the suffix of abundance used in Basque, primarily in place names incorporating trees.

Abarjeigi "the exalted one of the branch"

abar seems to be identical in form and meaning to Basque abar "branch".

Borberon Koso "lead sphere" + "beloved"

bor seems to be identical in form and meaning to the -bor suffix which is found in Basque in compounds such as zilbor "umbilicus" and gi(be)lbor "stomach". It may mean "sphere", rather like bil.

beron is likely to be cognate with Basque berun "lead". (Lead was a precious metal to the Iberians.)

koso is a common epithet. It is probably cognate with Basque gozo "sweet", and may mean "beloved".

Another example of koso is the Iberian war god adopted by the Romans, Semnococus, which is probably a Roman rendering of *seme-no koso "I remain the son" + "beloved".

Further examples are: Cosius Viascannus, recorded on a Roman era inscription at Laciana, Leon (*koso wi-askan "beloved" + "two arrows"); Cosus Daviniagus, recorded on a Roman era inscription at Meiras, Galicia (*koso d-awin-jaigi "beloved" + "the exalted one who promises"; and Cosus Oenaecus, recorded on a Roman era inscription at San Mamed de Seavia, Galicia (*koso oin-aiki "beloved" + "the exalted one of the forest").

Ulditekeraigas "the exalted one of the little spontaneity"

uldi appears to be cognate with Basque olde "free will, spontaneity". teker seems to be cognate with Basque (Bizkaian) txikar/txiker "little".

Argitikeraigas "the exalted one of the little light"

argi seems to be identical in form and meaning to Basque argi "light" (the Iberian form may occasionally be arki). tiker appears to be cognate with Basque (Bizkaian) txikar/txiker "little". tiker, teker and tikirs are simply variants of each other.

Balkebiurai(g)es "the exalted one of the twisted gold"

The literal meaning of balke is "piece of gold". We know that this was balki in the Basque Country, because Balkiadin is the name of one of the mercenaries recorded on the Ascoli Bronze Plate, and he seems to have come from Lumbier, Navarra. -ki appears to be a suffix identical to the -ki in Basque tupiki, zilarki, etc. balke/balki appears in Basque (Bizkaian) as beilegi "orange yellow", which is a folk-etymological reshaping of balke/balki based on confusion with orlegi "green" (the reshapers no doubt thought orlegi means "leaf colour", so by parity of reasoning took balki to be a deformed variant of beilegi "cow colour").

Personal names

Sinebetin Urkekere "certain oath" + "birch ??"

sine appears to be cognate with Basque zin "oath". betin, which is also found as batin and baitin, is probably cognate with Basque baitin "certain, sure".

urke seems to be cognate with Basque urki "birch tree". urke is also found in a number of classical place names: Ilurci (several) "town where birch trees grow", Urci "birch tree" (near Almeria), Urcesa "place of birch trees" (Orgas, south of Madrid), and also Orcades, the name given by Ptolemy to the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland (birch is the only tree native to the islands).

kere/gere is opaque, but could conceivably mean "our".

Sosinbiur "straight/twisted"

sosin is cognate with Basque zuzen "straight". biur is cognate with Basque biur/biurri "twisted, bent, curved".

What is the final -u? Is this a noun marker, or is it something else? Could it be that the writer knew of no bu/pu sign, so he employed a bi/pi sign and placed a u-sign immediately after it? Could the word be buru "head"?

Verb forms

baides and baideski

This form is found in votive inscriptions. On the El Cigarralejo and Ullastret Lead Tablets, the form appears as baides. On the Castellon Lead Tablet it appears both as baides and baideski.

The verb is probably the cognate of Basque idatzi "to write". ba- is likely to be a conditional prefix, as it can be in Basque.

So ba-ides may have a literal meaning "if I write". The anterior d- which, in Basque, marks synthetically conjugated transitive verbs in the present tense with a direct object, is absent here. This may be purely euphonic.

In the context of a votive inscription, a secondary meaning is likely, and this could be "to petition, beseech, implore, pray, etc". If so, then the deity who is being petitioned or besought will be the indirect object. The direct object will be the subject matter of the petition. This is because the primary meaning is "to write".

The form baideski confirms this. -ki is likely to be cognate with the -ki- infix used in Basque to indicate that a synthetically conjugated verb has an indirect object. For instance, natorkizu means "I come to you" (yes, an intransitive verb can have an indirect object).

baides may mean "let me petition", baideski "let me petition you".

bo du ei

bo seems to be identical in form and meaning to Basque bo, an affirmative particle. It is sometimes used in personal names, such as Karespobigir and Bobaitinba.

du is likely to be the third person singular present indicative of the cognate of Basque ukan "to have": "he/she/it has it", which may be used as an auxilliary with transitive verbs, as it can in Basque.

ei may be a "hearsay" particle, as it is in Basque - "it is said that".

bo du ei may therefore be "it is certainly said that he/she/it has it".

There are undoubtedly other verb forms in this text, but I am unable to identify and translate them with confidence, so I will leave them be for the present.

The ju mantra

ju appears in four places and has no obvious linguistic function. It may be some sort of mantra which is littered across the text to confer good luck, or some such thing.

Its function may be similar to m(a)i/nai "tablet, inscription", which is peppered across funerary texts.

I am unable to find ju in any other Iberian alphabet inscription.

Copulatives

Copulatives in Iberian appear to have been ita, ite and te, all fairly obviously cognate with Basque eta. The -e suffix, attached to two of the lexical elements, may also have a copulative function. In the case of aurrunibeigeai astebeigeai-e, the context certainly suggests this (see below).

aurruni-bei-geai aste-bei-geai-e

This appears to mean something like "in front of the superior cow and behind the superior cow".

aurruni appears to be cognate with Basque aurre "in front of". It is found in the Roman place name, Aurariola (*aurre-arri-ola "the place in front of the rock") (Orihuela, Alicante).

aste may well be cognate with Basque atze "behind". Certainly, the context would suggest that this is so.

bei looks as though it is cognate with Basque be(h)i "cow".

geai could well be cognate with Basque gehiago "bigger, superior".

The "superior cow" may have been a totem used in religious ceremonies.

Perhaps this phrase is an idiom meaning "anywhere he may be".

Until we can translate the entire text, we cannot know for sure if it is an execratio, or a more positively framed invocation.

With best wishes,

 

Angus J Huck