Tablet with 2,400-year-old alphabet offers insights into civilization that mysteriously disappeared

Decoding ancient languages also opens a window into the past helping researchers understand a bygone era. According to the Spanish National Research Council or CSIC, researchers from the Institute of Archeology of Mérida and the Government of Extremadura came together to unearth a 2,400-year-old tablet in Spain. The tablet has an alphabetic sequence of 21 signs that predates the Rosetta Stone by 400 years, per Daily Mail. 

Archaeologists dug up the 8-inch slate at Casas del Turuñuelo, which is an anthropological dig site in the country. The Casas del Turuñuelo site is located in the Las Vegas Altas del Guadiana region, near the mouth of the Búrdalo River and the first excavation started there in 2015, as per CSIC. It is believed by experts that the location has been a sanctuary for the Paleo-Hispanic society called Tartessos. The CSIC also revealed a couple of human figures on the tablet which are believed to be the representation of warriors from an advanced civilization that disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

"The volume of information it contained was even greater and may yet prove to be evidence of an independent, brand new, Paleo-Hispanic southern alphabet," a leader of the excavation and one of CSIC researchers, Esther Rodrigues Gonzalez told the outlet. The engravings on the tablet date back to 600 BC and 400 BC and it also features various geometric shapes, and figures of three warriors in combat.

Experts reviewing the tablets have presented a theory that the tablet was used like a "scratch pad or sketchbook" by artisans of that civilization to practice the shapes and symbols before engraving them on gold, ivory, or wood. According to Live Science, the Tartessos were an ancient civilization that first settled down in the Iberian peninsula around 8 BC and they were known for their elaborate writing system. But they had mysteriously disappeared by 4 BC and hence artifacts related to the civilization are considered immensely valuable.

Fox News reported that the tablet is only the third piece of evidence suggesting that the Tartessos people had their own alphabet. “This alphabet has 27 signs and is the only complete one we know to date,” according to Joan Ferrer I Jané, a language development expert and a researcher at the University of Barcelona. He added that “other strokes compatible with signs of a known sequence" were also carved into the stone. "If it were completely symmetrical and the signs completely occupied three of the four sides of the plate it could reach 32 signs,” Ferrer I Jané remarked.

"After studying the images, everything indicates that it is a southern script alphabet with the initial sequence ABeKaTuIKeLBaNSŚTaUE, which is almost the same as documented in the Spanish alphabet, except for the eleventh sign, which has a special shape," Ferrer I Jané explained, as per CSIC. He concluded by saying, "Beyond the figures, when I looked at the plaque I saw that on one of the sides, there seemed to be a Paleo-Hispanic sign, a sign that cannot be confused with any other. Other traces compatible with signs of a known sequence were also seen."