27 signs and blurred outlines of warriors. In Spain, archaeologists accidentally stumbled upon the alphabet of a long-vanished civilization

During archaeological excavations near the Spanish city of Guareña, archaeologists found a 20-centimeter tablet. However, they did not immediately realize that they were looking at a unique alphabet with 27 characters and fuzzy outlines of a warrior.

An expert in Paleo-Spanish languages helped the National Research Council of Spain decipher the riddle, as he accidentally saw more than the rest of the researchers. He recognized a unique writing system that was used on the Iberian Peninsula before the Latin alphabet appeared, Iflscience reports.

Spanish archaeologists have found a valuable tablet near the city of Guareña. This area belonged to the late Tartesse civilization, which emerged in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula about 2500 years ago.

At the presentation of the found 20-centimeter plaque, the National Research Council of Spain explained that it depicts individuals fighting, i.e. warriors.

While casually reading the news about the shale tablet found in Spain, a sharp-eyed researcher, computer scientist and expert in Paleo-Spanish languages from the University of Barcelona, Joan Ferrer i Janae, noticed that archaeologists had missed a huge discovery. Having once again looked closely at the presented photos, he noticed not only engravings of warriors, but also a mysterious alphabet of the ancient language. The scientist realized that the artifact was more significant than the Spanish archaeologists had described.

"Outside of the figures, when I looked at the tablet, I saw that there seemed to be a Paleo-Spanish sign on one side. This sign cannot be confused with any other," Joan said.

He immediately contacted the Merida Institute of Archaeology to get better images of the slab. "After a careful study of the images, everything pointed to it being a southern alphabet with the initial sequence ABeKaTuIKeLBaNS?ŚTaUE, which is almost the same as documented in the Spanish alphabet, except for the eleventh character, which has a special shape," Ferrer explained.

The researcher realized that he was looking at a very rare example of southern Paleo-Spanish writing.

Paleo-Spanish scripts are the writing systems used on the Iberian Peninsula before the advent of the Latin alphabet. They are divided into at least two families: northeastern and southern. All of these scripts are believed to be descended from the Phoenician writing system developed by the Phoenician civilization that flourished about 3000 years ago along the eastern Mediterranean coast in what is now Lebanon, Syria, and Israel.

The new discovery is very important. Because there are only two other artifacts that show the alphabets of southern Paleo-Spanish scripts. So scientists know very little about this writing system.

According to Ferrer, there could have been more letters or symbols on the found tablet, because its lower part is broken off.

"This alphabet has 27 characters and is the only complete one we know of today. Another athefact was found during the excavations of Villazviejas del Tamuha (Cáceres), but it is very fragmented. It has only some central characters. Therefore, the found alphabet will be the third example and will provide a lot of information," Ferrer explained.

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