Botorrita plaque


The Botorrita plaques are four bronze plaques discovered in Botorrita, near Zaragoza, Spain, dating to the late 2nd century BC, known as Botorrita I, II, III and IV.
Botorrita II is in the Latin language, but Botorrita I, III and IV, inscribed in the Celtiberian script, constitute the main part of the Celtiberian corpus.

Botorrita I

Botorrita I was found in 1970. It is the longest inscription in Celtiberian consisting of a text in 11 lines, on the front face, continued by a list of names on the back side.

Translation

Although the general contents of the inscription are known with some confidence, there is as yet no unified, agreed-upon translation. On the first side, David Stifter, for example, indicates that is an 'assembly of 300', similar to Gaulish tricantia, while according to Bayer is something like 'was suitable '. The sequences with nelitom and nekue... litom with infinitive in -aunei are clearly something like ' not permitted to...', and mentions some kind of monetary and property fines for ignoring the prohibitions. The second side clearly consists of names, presumably prominent members of the assembly. The names are in the Celtiberian formula, e.g. lubos kounesikum melnunos, that is 'Lubo of the Kounesiko, of Melnon'; for this reason, it has been suggested that is actually , i.e. /gentis/ 'son', as this clearly fits the context.

Botorrita II

This bronze plaque is inscribed in Latin and was discovered in an illegal excavation of the Contrebia Belaisca site, and was obtained in December 1979 by editor Guillermo Fatás Cabeza. The inscription is fully decipherable and relates how the senate of Contrebia Belaisca was called upon by neighboring towns for a decision concerning the right of the town of Salluia to build a canal through the territory of the Sosinestani, an initiative to which the neighboring Allauonenses objected. Based upon the names of Roman officials, the text has been dated to May 87 BC.

Botorrita III

Botorrita III, discovered in 1979, is inscribed in four columns on one side of a plaque, introduced by a heading of two lines. A part of the plaque is missing, but the inscribed portion is complete. It is heavily corroded, and the text was only legible by x-ray.
Xavier Delamarre argues that the term uiroku means "man-wolf" and is cognate to the ancient name of the English village of Wroxeter: Viroconium. In this vein, the word is cognate to Old Irish Ferchú and Old Welsh Gurcí.
Blanca Maria Prósper interprets the word letontu as pertaining to the semantc field of the Proto-Indo-European root *pléth₂us. It is also suggested that Toutinokum refers to a family name and derives from the widespread Celtic root *teuta.

Botorrita IV

Botorrita IV, discovered in 1994, consists of 18 lines on both faces of the plaque. The text is fragmentary. The tirikantam of Botorrita I reappears in line A.1.