Botorrita plaque

The Botorrita plaques are four bronze plaques discovered in Botorrita (Roman Contrebia Belaisca), near Zaragoza, Spain, dating to the early 1st 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 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.

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 (2001), for example, indicates that <tirikantam> is an "assembly of 300", similar to Gaulish tricantia, while <kombalkez> according to Bayer (1994) is something like "was (deemed) suitable (by the assembly)" (cf. Latin complacere 'to please'). The sequences with nelitom and nekue ... litom with infinitive in -aunei are clearly something like "(it is) 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 (people), [son] of Melnon"; for this reason, it has been suggested that <bintis> is actually <kentis>, i.e. /gentis/ 'son', as this clearly fits the context.

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 Fatas. 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, 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.

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