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The corpus of the Southwestern (hereafter SW) script consists of around 90 so-called "stones" or "stelae", of which ten are nowadays lost (De Hoz 2010: 354-355). In the main, the inscriptions come from modern-day southern Portugal, particularly the regions of Baixo Alentejo and Algarve (see de Hoz 2010: 608, Guerra 2013: 28 or Koch 2013b: 542). A small number have been found in Spain, four in western Andalusia and four in the Upper Guadiana area.1 A few graffiti on pottery have also been identified as examples of the script, but see below on their problematic classification.
The stone slabs on which the inscriptions were executed are of variable size and shape. The lack in many cases of well-recorded archaeological contexts makes the chronology and function of the inscribed slabs thorny issues. Briefly put, there is agreement that the stones were used as funerary stelae that stood on the ground, at least some times, and that occasionally were reused as building material in later tombs. This summarizes practically all the light that can be shed on the semantic contents of the inscriptions from context. Regarding chronology, it is accepted that the inscriptions date to the Iron Age I and, with due caution, they are tentatively placed between the 8th and the 6th centuries BCE (discussion with references in de Hoz 2010: 356-361).
The SW script is one of the Paleohispanic scripts, a group of interrelated writing systems created and used in the Iberian Peninsula in Pre-Roman times to transcribe native languages. They include also the Southeastern or "Meridional" (SE) and the Northeastern or "Levantine" (NE) semi-syllabaries. The NE script has been deciphered and it is known to represent the Iberian language, although the latter remains largely incomprehensible; a variety of this script was also adapted to write the IE Celtiberian language.2 Paleohispanic scripts are characterized by the use of syllabic signs for stops (ka, ke, ki, and so on) and "alphabetical" signs for the remaining consonants and vowels, which is the reason that they are called semi-syllabaries. Thus we find spellings such as bi-l-a- ke in the NE Iberian script. The SW script is distinct in that the letters that are formal cognates of the syllabic signs of other Paleohispanic...