Una pequeña lámina de plomo con inscripción ibérica de paleografía arcaica del Pico de los Ajos (Yátova, València)

Abstract

In this paper we edit a small sheet of lead found in the Iberian site of Pico de los Ajos (Yátova) in the 2018 campaign. The sheet appeared folded and it contains an Iberian inscription of only one line on each side that most likely forms a single full text. Its formal characteristics are uncommon, the closest parallel being the votive lead sheets of the site of El Amarejo. The presence of the kutuŕ element, frequent in rock votive inscriptions, would also invite to a religious interpretation. From the palaeographic point of view, it should be noted that this is an explicitly dual text, due to the convivence of the two variants of the signs te and ŕ. Although the archaeological context of its amortization has a chronology of the end of the 2^nd century BC or early 1^st century BC, this new lead sheet presents an archaic palaeography, perhaps even from the 4^th century BC. This would be well explained because the lead sheet has appeared in a building dedicated to the recycling of metal objects, being at that time only one more metal object, out from its original context.