Peñalba de Villastar is a Celtiberian sanctuary in the municipality of Villastar,

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. About 10km south of

Teruel Teruel () is a city in Aragon, located in eastern Spain, and is also the capital of Teruel (province), Teruel Province. It had a population of 35,900 as of 2022, making it the least populated provincial capital in Spain. It is noted for its har ...

, it is located at the eastern edge of

Celt The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...

. The sanctuary is along a cliff 1,500m in length, where soft white

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and

marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, Clay minerals, clays, and silt. When Lithification, hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. M ...

rock bears hundreds of inscriptions and

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

. The sanctuary was discovered by in 1910. Cabré mostly focused on the inscriptions, which he traced and photographed, but did not attempt to decipher. Several inscriptions were removed by Cabré and by locals from the neighbouring village of Villel; some of these inscriptions are now lost, others are now at the Archaeology Museum of Catalonia. Research into the meaning of these inscriptions was undertaken by Manuel Gómez-Moreno, Michel Lejeune, Ulrich Schmoll and Antonio Tovar in the 1940s and 1950s, and by

Jürgen Untermann Jürgen Untermann (24 October 1928, in Rheinfelden – 7 February 2013, in Brauweiler) was a German linguist, indoeuropeanist and epigraphist. A disciple of Hans Krahe and of Ulrich Schmoll, he studied at the University of Frankfurt and th ...

in the 1970s. From the 1980s, attention began to be paid to the non-linguistic aspects of the site, such as the figurative graffiti. The inscriptions are mostly very short. Their meaning is generally obscure, though thought to be religious in nature. Some appear to be personal names or the names of gods. The inscriptions are primarily written in the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

, but some are written in

Paleohispanic scripts The Paleohispanic scripts are the writing systems created in the Iberian Peninsula before the Latin alphabet became the dominant script. They derive from the Phoenician alphabet, with the exception of the Greco-Iberian alphabet, which is ...

. The inscriptions in the Latin script are mostly in the

Celtiberian language Celtiberian or Northeastern Hispano-Celtic is an extinct Indo-European language of the Celtic branch spoken by the Celtiberians in an area of the Iberian Peninsula between the headwaters of the Douro, Tagus, Júcar and Turia rivers and the ...

, with some in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. The inscriptions in Paleohispanic scripts are in the

Iberian language The Iberian language is the language of an indigenous western European people identified by Ancient Greece, Greek and ancient Rome, Roman sources who lived in the eastern and southeastern regions of the Iberian Peninsula in the pre-Migration Era ...

. Most of the inscriptions seem to date between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE. The two longest inscriptions are a passage from the ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

'', and what is perhaps a dedication to the Celtic god

Lugus Lugus (sometimes Lugos or Lug) is a Celtic god whose worship is attested in the epigraphic record. No depictions of the god are known. Lugus perhaps also appears in Ancient Rome, Roman sources and medieval Insular Celts, Insular mythology. Va ...

References

* Cabré, J. (1910) "La montaña escrita de Peñalba, Teruel" ''Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia'' 56, pp. 241-280. * Gómez Moreno, M. (1949) ''Misceláneas''. Madrid. * Lejeune, M. (1955) ''Celtiberica''. Salamanca. * Pérez Vilatela, L. (1993): "Lectura de la inscripción celtibérica adjunta a la número 17 de Peñalba" in I. Adiego; J. Siles; J. Velaza (eds.) ''Studia Palaeohispanica et Indogermanica J. Untermann ab amicis Hispanicis oblata''. Barcelona. pp. 225-238. * (1996): "Inscripciones celtibéricas inéditas de Peñalba", in F. Villar; J. d’Encarnaçâo (eds.) ''La Hispania prerromana (VI CLCP)''. Salamanca. pp. 247-278. * Schmoll, U. (1959) ''Die Sprachen der vorkeltischen Indogermanen Hispaniens und das Keltiberische''. Wiesbaden. * Tovar, A. (1959) "Las inscripciones celtibéricas de Peñalba de Villastar" ''Emerita'' 27, pp. 349-365. * (1973) "Las inscripciones de Botorrita y de Peñalba de Villastar y los límites orientales de los celtíberos", Hispania Antiqua 3, pp. 367-405. * (1981) "El dios céltico Lugu en Hispania" in ''La religión romana en Hispania'', pp. 279-281, Madrid. * Untermann, J. (1977) "En torno a las inscripciones rupestres de Peñalba de Villastar" ''Teruel'' 57-58, pp. 5-21. * {{long dash (1997) ''Monumenta linguarum Hispanicarum IV, Die tartessischen, keltiberischen und lusitanischen Inschriften''. Wiesbaden. Ancient Celtic religion Archaeological sites in Aragon Celtiberian inscriptions Celtic archaeological sites Iberian writing Latin inscriptions Prehistoric sites in Spain Province of Teruel Rock art in Spain

References

Further reading