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                                                    SOUTHWEST PALEOHISPANIC SCRIPT


 
                                      Southwestern script in the context of paleohispanic scripts







Herdade da Abobada (Almodôvar)


The southwest script or southwestern script, also known as Tartessian or South Lusitanian is a paleohispanic script that was the means of written expression of an unknown language usually identified with the same name, among them the most popular is Tartessian.

The southwestern inscriptions had been found mainly in the southwestern quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula: mainly in the south of Portugal (Algarve and southern Alentejo), but also in Spain (south of Extremadura and western Andalucia).

The name of this script is very controversial. The more neutral name is southwestern, because it refers only to the geographical location were the inscriptions had been found, but it needs some additional precision in a general context.

Some researchers name this script Tartessian considering this script the script of Tartessos.

Others prefer to name this script as South Lusitanian, because almost all the southwestern inscriptions have been found in the south of Portugal (an area included in the Roman province of Lusitania), where the Greek and Roman sources locate the Pre-Roman Conii or Cynetes people, instead in the zone generally considered Tartessian (between Huelva and the Guadalquivir valley).

But on the other hand, the name South Lusitanian is inconvenient, as it may wrongly suggest a relation with the Lusitanian language.

Other name proposals include Bastulo-Turdetanian and Algarvan.