Letters found by Celtic beria in the spindle spiral – History Blog

The engraved symbols of the spindle thread structure in the 1st century BC are one of the earliest examples of letter writing in the Northern Iberian Peninsula. The spindle spiral is a donut-shaped counterweight with a rotating spindle that was discovered in 2017 at the site of the Iron Age La Peñadel Castro near La Ercina, Leon Province, northwest Spain.

From the 10th century BC to the Roman era, there was evidence of occupation at the site of La Peña Del Castro, with the largest area and population, between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC and the 2nd century BC, the village was burned and abandoned in the 1st century BC.

In 2017, an archaeologist who was identified as a private warehouse was excavated. Artifacts found in the warehouse include a basket made of bark containing a set of seeds that may be residues of cow’s legs during the healing process, as well as several agricultural or hand-used tools. There are three perforated discs in the hand tool, which are considered to be discs of spindles.

After cleaning, these fragments reveal the decoration of points and radial lines on two of them, and a small symbol, composed of two cut lines, forming an acute angle, like the third letter V. The engraving of symbols is precise and accurate, with the vertices of lines being the same as the edges. The engraver used a board drill to create a slight perforation at each point in the apex, some of which were found on the spot. Then, a stroke was added to the perforation.

The symbol has nothing to do with the decoration on other spindle spirals, and has nothing to do with any other artifacts found on site. However, it has been documented in the graffiti of vaccine culture, which is related to Celtics, who occupied parts of Leon from the 4th century BC until the Roman Empire era. Although they did not use the writing system, they did use Celticoberian letters, which were used to spell Latin characters in native languages.

Analysis of dark grey talc with honey talc line veins was used to make the engraved spindle helical threads talc powder extracted from the Puebla de Lillo mine 25 miles north of the 2nd century BC, because the material is local, and it is likely to have been carved on site rather than introduced through transactions.

This shows that although we do not have any text from the Iron Age in the Cantabria region, there is a population in this settlement with practical knowledge. In this regard, we must consider the possibility that there may be a foreign population in the solution.

This study has been published in the journal pantstrapica Can be read in this PDF.