Ancient Celtic Writing
Systems
Terminology
• Epigraphy/epigrapher: Study of
inscriptions, which are composed of
graphemes. These are the basic units of a
writing system such as a letter or
character or hieroglyph.
• Paleography: The study of ancient writing,
including the dating of manuscripts.
Archaeologist don’t usually study these
things, but instead call in specialists.
Forms Graphemes may Assume
• Ideograms: represents a concept.
Example: Chinese character.
• Logograms: represents the sound of a
syllable.
Example: Mayan glyph.
• Alphabet: represents a phoneme.
Example: Roman letters.
Tartessian
Phoenicians establish trading colonies on
the Iberian peninsula c. 800 BC.
Inscriptions begin in the mid 7th century BC.
The script uses the Phoenician alphabet.
Phoenician was a Semitic language.
The Tartessian
script varied
the symbols
they used for a
single
consonant
depending
upon the
following
vowel.
They are found
engraved upon
warrior stelae.
The inscriptions
commemorate the
dead.
John Koch has decided
that the language
transmitted by the scipt
was a Celtic language –
and if true, it becomes
the earliest attested
Celtic language.
Koch further proposes
that Iberia was the
original Celtic
heartland.
Ogam
Ogam is the earliest form of writing found in
Ireland. It was inscribed upon stones
dedicated to a deceased individual.
Ogam stones were erected from the fourth
to eighth century AD.
The script is based upon late
Roman Latin. The language of the
inscriptions is Archaic Irish.
• Thanks to ogam inscriptions we know
about the phonetics of Archaic Irish.
• We also know something about changes
in group identity from the Iron Age to the
Early Medieval period. E.g. a people lived
on the Dingle peninsula in the Early Middle
Ages called the Corcu Duibne, “The Seed
of Dub.” In the Iron Age they claimed to
be descended from a goddess named
Dovinias (Maqqi Muccoi Dovvinias).