Object type
lames (plates)
Culture/period
Greece
Materials
lead
Technique
inscription
Mint
Production date
-530 / -500
Seu
Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya - Empúries
Current location
Exposició permanent
Archaeological site
Empúries. Neàpolis
Township
Escala, l' (Alt Empordà)
Dimensions
95 x 142 x 1 mm
Description
Read more
Letter written in the Greek alphabet on a lead sheet. It was found rolled up inside a room in the Neapolis during the 1985 campaign. It is rectangular in shape and has 14 lines, although we do not know the length of these lines due to the poor state of preservation of the sides; the central part, however, is perfectly legible. The central part, on the other hand, is perfectly legible. Its reading has allowed us to affirm that it is an archaic Ionian dialect, which was spoken in the Phocaean area, with the presence of eolisms. It is a private letter, of a commercial nature, in which one person commissions the purchase and transport of certain goods from another. The mention of the Ampuritanians, of a city - probably Sagunto (Saiganthe) - and of an Iberian personage (Basped) is very important. The dating of this letter, according to philological criteria, can be placed in the last third of the 6th century BC, which makes it an exceptionally interesting document for the knowledge of the paleography of the Ionian language of the Archaic period and its influence on the Iberian alphabet.
© Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya - Empúries
Omeka ID
120