• 1 Jordan, 1980, p. 226-227; De Hoz, 1999, p. 443-444; Dana, 2015, p. 115, believes that le (...)
• 2 Decourt, 2014; Dana, 2015, p. 115. In Sicily (Morgantina and Camarina) lead sheets were (...)
• 3 The lead sheets of this region were inventoried in the IGEP, nr. 129-133 and 1 (...)
• 4 De Hoz, 1999, p. 443-447
• 5 Only one Iberian example, which was nailed to a column, appears to have been w (...)
• 6 MLH III, F.13.2, F.20.1, F.20.3 and also the piece from the Marsal collection (Untermann (...)
• 7 Rodríguez Ramos, 1997, p. 17.

3Greek use of lead for writing was not limited to defixiones, indeed there are examples in which other types of texts were engraved, such as missives, loan agreements, sales and the Athenian cavalry archives1. A considerable portion of these come from the two opposite ends of Greek colonization: the Black Sea and the Gulf of Lion (fig. 1)2. This latter region, neighboring Iberian culture, has a large number of surviving testimonies. In addition, the use of this material for inscriptions was one of the most long-standing contributions of the Greeks to Iberian writing culture3. This use of lead constitutes a relevant contribution of Greek civilization to Iberian written culture4. Indeed, the use that Iberian epigraphy does of lead is exceptional, with over one hundred examples, within the Ancient world. In the West, lead is rarely used for its magical nature –very few Greek texts on lead in this region are defixiones. Likewise, despite the fact that this material shares durability with stone or bronze it, unlike those, is not used for public display5. It is, on the other hand, cheap and abundant, when papyrus is difficult to come by. The short-lived nature of these texts is testified by: 1) the sketchy way in which the text is written in some of them; 2) the fact that many sheets are re-used; and 3) the existence of palimpsests6. Papyrus was produced far away, so a necessary substitute was found in the plumbeous sheets. Finally, many of the inscriptions were found in settlements that were destroyed. This indicates that the material was normally recycled, and only forced abandonment resulted in the caches that we currently benefit from7.

• 8 A typology according to size and format can be found in Morell, 2009, p. 256, fig. (...)
• 9 Simón, 2012; Bonet, 2013.
• 10 These can’t be associated with defixiones because they are not secondary deposits, albei (...)
• 11 The piece G.7.2 was found in room 48 of La Bastida, in the same house as room 49, which (...)
• 12 Regarding the interpretation of Iberian leads, see Untermann, 1987, 1996, 2001, and Ordu (...)

4The lead sheets that were used to write are fine –approximately 1 mm thick– 10-15 cm rectangular sheets that are usually stored folded or furled8. They were specifically designed for writing, usually for everyday purpose; indeed, most of the testimonies recovered come from domestic contexts9. Only four were found in entombments: one at El Cigarralejo (tomb 1, G.13.1) and a group of three together at Orleyl (tomb II, F.9.5-7) 10. Lead is an inexpensive material which is easily malleable, even for incising a text11. Unfortunately, our understanding of the Iberian language is still in its infancy, but some internal and external arguments indicate that the texts inscribed into these sheets were mainly accounting documents and missives12.

• 23 Ruiz Darasse, 2006, p. 168; Morell, 2009, ch. 9.
• 24 De Hoz, 1995, p. 70.
• 25 Sanmartí, 1988, p. 109.
• 26 Solier, Barbouteau, 1988, p. 85-87.
• 27 Camañes et al., 2010, p. 237.
• 28 Lorrio, Velaza, 2005.
• 29 Rodríguez Ramos, 2004, p. 223.
• 30 C.0.1, C.0.2, F.20.4, F.21.1, La Mazorra (Fletcher, 1982, p. 6-8).
• 31 Casinos (Ferrer, Escrivà 2014), Tàrrega (Ferrer, Garcès, 2013), Llano de la Consolación (...)
• 32 For example, a large part of the lead documents from La Serreta, Alcoy, have been revise (...)
• 33 Some lead inscriptions have been disregarded because they were not written on tablets, b (...)

5The chronology of the lead sheets basically corresponds with that of all Iberian epigraphy, with the oldest examples being from the end of the 5^th century BC, and the last ones belonging to the end of the millennium. Several recent studies, however, point out that these lead sheets cease to be used around the 3^rd century BC, based on regional studies of Valencia and Catalonia23. This is not the consensus, however. De Hoz had already argued that lead was used for Iberian inscriptions well into the final phase (2^nd and 1^st centuries BC), using the examples of the lead sheets found at Ampurias and Gruissan24. The first example was dated to transition from the 3^rd to the 2^nd centuries BC based on the archaeological context25. The second one was found alongside other materials of a 1^st century BC shipwreck in Mateilles lagoon26. More recent discoveries appear to support De Hoz’s conclusions: a lead sheet was found in an archaeological context from 100 BC at Monteró27, as well as the only Celtiberian lead sheet which can hardly be earlier than the 2^nd century BC28. In addition, many of the sheets which lack any archaeological context could very well be from the last two centuries. The three examples from El Pico de los Ajos (F.20.1-3) can be paleographically dated to this final period,29 and the absence of “dual system” writing –which appears to stop being used in the last two centuries BC– also supports a later chronology. On the other hand, many of the lead sheets documented were found in the destructions from the transition from the 3^rd to the 2^nd centuries, whereas the many destructions of the 1^st century fail to provide almost any examples, indicating that their use was in sharp decline. Indeed, although late-period examples do exist, the use of lead for writing decreases dramatically between the 3^rd and 2^nd centuries. Before exploring this evolution is explored any further, the origin of many of these hundred documents is private collections30, casual finds –including the exceptional examples from Los Villares (F.17.1-4) or Pico de los Ajos (F.20.1-3)31– or old excavations32. In all these cases, establishing reliable chronologies is challenging because internal criteria, such as paleography, are often questionable as well33.

• 34 Aranegui, 2004, p. 76-78.
• 35 Burriel et al., 2011.
• 36 Regarding the site, see Bonet, Vives-Ferrándiz, 2011; the leads have been spec (...)
• 37 Cuadrado, 1987, p. 121-123.
• 38 Muñoz, 1990, p. 98.
• 39 Barberà, Sanmartí, 1982.
• 40 Riurò, 1982, p. 131.
• 41 Ferrer, Velaza, 2008.
• 42 Velaza, 2004, p. 326.
• 43 See also De Hoz, 2011b, p. 386-388.
• 44 Untermann, 2014, PM I-V.
• 45 The lead documents from this site were excavated a long time ago. Nonetheless, an improv (...)
• 46 Probably the two documents published by Benages, 1990, as well as a later publication (...)
• 47 The site was destroyed at this time, but many of the lead documents may have well been o (...)
• 48 Guérin, Silgo, 1996.
• 49 Ferrer, 2013.
• 50 C.1.6 (Morell, 2009, p. 295) and the one published by Sanmartí, 1988.

6The oldest lead sheets containing Iberian inscriptions belong to the 4^th century BC, albeit there are several which may be even earlier. One example comes from Grau Vell (Sagunto)34, or the one from Tos Pelat, a site abandoned between the end of the 5^th century and mid-4^th century35. Many examples are demonstrably from the 4^th century: three sheets from La Bastida (Mogente)36, and one each from El Cigarralejo (G.13.1)37, Coimbra del Barranco Ancho38, or Peña del Moro (C.17.1)39. The 3^rd century is attested by the sheets of Palamós (C.4.1)40, Pontòs41, Puig de Castellar (Santa Coloma de Gramanet)42 and El Amarejo43. Nonetheless, the largest group is found in the various destruction phases documented at the turn of the 3^rd-2^nd centuries BC, during the Second Punic War or in the various campaigns carried out in its wake against various Iberian peoples. They are the five written lead sheets from Pech Maho44, two from San Miguel de Liria (F.13.2), five from Ullastret (C.2.3-7)45, three from Castellet de Banyoles46, ten from La Serreta47, as well as two isolated finds probably associated with Castellet de Bernabe48 and La Palma.49 In addition, two of the sheets found at Ampurias establish this period as an ante quem chronology50.

• 51 Three from Monteró (Camarasa, Lleida) and one from San Esteban de Olriols (Hue (...)
• 52 Camañes et al., 2010, p. 237. Several sites can be found in this place (Principal et al.(...)
• 53 Lorrio, Velaza, 2005.
• 54 Dana, 2015, p. 115-116.
• 55 The two Greek defixiones from Ampurias are dated to the 4^th-3^rd centuries BC (IGF, nº 132-133).

7The sharp decline in the use lead as a writing material between the Second Punic War and the ensuing years. The many destructions that take place during the Civil Wars of the 1^st century BC yield no such sheets. Interestingly, no lead sheets were used in areas, such as the middle Ebro valley, were writing itself did not appear until the 2^nd or 1^st centuries BC (fig. 4). The westernmost finds come from the valley of the Segre51, and even there one of the finds is precisely one of the last examples: Monteró 1, a Roman castellum from the transition from the 2^nd to the 1^st centuries52. In Celtiberia vernacular epigraphy appears during or after Roman conquest, and there is only one sheet rescued from the black market and, apparently, found at La Manchuela (province of Cuenca)53. In parallel, Greek lead inscriptions disappear after the 3^rd century BC in the Gulf of Lion. Indeed, the letters and contracts in lead from the area are from the 5^th-3^rd centuries54. Only the lead sheet of Olbia (IGF, nº70), considered a defixio or ‘prayer for justice’, seems to be from the 2^nd-1^st centuries55.

• 56 The oldest examples are from the Republican period: ELRH, C87, U29, U33-37. Naturally, t (...)

8Finally, the lead sheet disappears as a writing material in the Roman imperial period, except for this use to write curses –defixiones–56. Under Augustus indigenous writing and languages in Hispania practically disappears. Nonetheless, Latin epigraphy continues to use many types, materials and formats previously used in Iberian and Celtiberian inscriptions, such as the bronze tabulae, steles, mosaics, graphites and potter stamps. Lead sheets, however, were not maintained, except to write curses.

• 57 In one of the Greek magical papyri the text mentions that for writing on a lead sheet th (...)
• 58 Božič, Feugère, 2004, p. 30-31.
• 59 Béal, 1983, p. 151.

9Writing on a lead sheet is easy given the ductility of the material, but it nonetheless required the use of a metal stylus that, unfortunately, has never been archaeologically found for certain in Iberia57. Bone styli, however, have been found in Iberian contexts of the 2^nd-1^st centuries BC (fig. 5). There is little research on the Iron Age bone industry, and for the Roman period there is often certain typological confusion that has hindered meaningful research as to their function until very recently. This recent work has cleared the doubts surrounding their use, and these objects are garnering increasing attention, particularly in Roman republican military studies, contexts in which they are quite common. In a key article on writing utensils, Božič and Feugère58 have collected formal and contextual arguments to support that these sharp bones are disposable styli, and not spindles59. From a formal point of view, their sharp tip would be useless in a spindle, and the smoothness of the spherical heads can easily be attributed to their use as erasers. Contextual evidence also supports their writing functionality, because they have never been found near whorls, and yet they do appear in tombs and shipwrecks near other writing instruments, notwithstanding their mentioned frequency in military camps.

• 60 The most complete typology, especially of biconic types, can be found in Gostenčnik, 200 (...)
• 61 Božič, Feugère, 2004, p. 30-31.
• 62 A 2^nd century BC fragment recently found in the excavations at Saint Roch neig (...)
• 63 Olesti, 2019, p. 60.
• 64 See Andrews, 2012. Alonso, 2013, has published a catalogue with all the examples found i (...)

10Styli are pointed instruments with a widening that helps grab them, either between the shaft and the tip –in a conical stylus– or halfway down the shaft –in a biconical stylus60. One tip is sharpened for incising, and the other is beveled or rounded for erasing by flattening the wax (uertere stilum). Conical styli are typical in the earlier period (2^nd-1^st centuries BC), and they are replaced by biconical styli under Augustus61. The former are precisely the most commonly found in Republican camps. These bone styli were used to inscribe in wax tablets, which is meaningful information for the history of writing because these tablets –tabulae ceratae– must have been very common, and yet they have only very exceptionally survived to our time62. Other instruments are associated with these wax tablets, such as the spatulas used to flatten the wax, with very few documented63, and the seal boxes, whose very relation with these tablets is controversial64.

• 65 For the Numantine camps (Luik, 2002, n.º 262-266, 346-352) and for Cáceres el Viejo (Ulb (...)
• 66 Olèrdola (Molist, 2014, p. 242, fig. 14, n.º 11) or the Camp de les Lloses (Ca (...)
• 67 Ribera, 2017, fig. 20.
• 68 Mayayo, e.p.
• 69 At the Ulu Burum shipwreck a 15th century BC diptych of wax tablets was found (Payton, (...)
• 70 Rébé, 2016, has published around sixty from the old excavations at Ruscino, albeit three (...)
• 71 Olesti, 2019, p. 63, on Baetulo and Iluro.
• 72 Simón, in press.

11No styli have been found in Iberia prior to the 2^nd century BC. The fact that they are all from after Roman conquest, and they have been primarily found in military camps (the Numantine camps, or Cáceres el Viejo)65, as well as other military instalations (Olèrdola and Camp de les Lloses)66, colonies (Valentia67) or strongly Italicized sites (La Cabañeta)68, appears to indicate that these instruments came to Iberia borne by the Romans themselves, despite their ancient existence in other parts of the Mediterranean69. In any case, they also appear in Iberian settlements such as Ruscino (MLH II, B.8)70, Azaila (MLH III, E.1), El Palomar de Oliete (MLH III, E.5; fig. 6), Iluro or Baetulo (MLH, C.8),71 where Iberian writing is common, and Latin is barely, if at all, present, indicating that they were used by local population to use with their own writing72.

• 73 Beltrán, 2005, p. 24, points this absence out. Not a single example of learning how to w (...)
• 74 Gener et al., 2012; Almagro-Gorbea, 2017, has published another piece stored i (...)

12Writing instruments such as the stylus shed more light on the practice of writing, but there are still many shadows over what Iberian literacy was like. It is likely that in the pre-Roman period other materials were used apart from lead. Indeed, lead sheets with daily usage abound, but there are no writing exercises73. In addition, other writing instruments have been identified, suggesting that other writing materials were used to write on, such as papyrus, which is indirectly present in the cretulae, which have only been found in Cádiz74.

• 75 Ruiz Darasse, 2006, p. 168.
• 76 Morell, 2009, ch. 9.
• 77 Beltrán, 2004, p. 67-68.
• 78 Barrandon, 2013.
• 79 IGF, n.º 135.
• 80 IGEP, n.º 129.
• 81 katulati, in the latter example, has been classified as Iberian or Gallic name (...)
• 82 Rodríguez Ramos, 2001, p. 33-34, has considered an alternative hypothesis in which the L (...)
• 83 Rafel et al., 2010.
• 84 Morell, 2009, p. 302.
• 85 Barrandon, 2013.

13The disappearance, or sharp decline, of Iberian lead sheets has been pointed out for Valencia by Ruiz Darasse75, and for Catalonia by Morell76. Beltrán also pointed out that this reduction may have been due to ‘alterations in the trading networks, or the way in which trading agreements were written down’77. Barrandon (2013) also believes that changes in the trading system finished off lead sheets78. This author establishes two hypotheses; one is a change in the networks themselves, and the other is a problem with the distribution of lead: 1. The sheets were used in trade between Greeks and Iberians, but the arrival of Italic traders disrupted these relations; 2. Access to lead deposits was restricted after the Romans took control of silver production around Cartagena. Both ideas, however, have been challenged. One of them is that although there are Iberian names in the Greek lead sheet of Pech Maho79 and one from Ampurias80, the opposite is nowhere to be found, either Greek names listed in Iberian texts, or even as recipients of letters81. Emporion was a key ally of Rome during the conquest, so it seems unlikely that it would be marginalized economically as the hypothesis would suggest82. Regarding the second hypothesis proposed by Barrandon, the analysis of lead objects from Ampurias pointed out that it came, not only from the Southeast, but also from the Priorat (province of Tarragona) and southern France83. Already Morell had discarded that there would be any shortage of lead, opting rather for the natural substitution of one material for ‘new types of more efficient materials’84. Indeed, Barrandon believes such new materials would be the “tablettes noircies”85.

• 86 Regarding the use of tablets: Degni, 1998, and the various studies found in Lalou, (...)

14The recent study and analysis of styli, which is not part of the studies mentioned above, proves that wax tablets were used in Iberia starting in the 2^nd-1^st centuries BC. They were possibly introduced in Iberia by the Romans, but nonetheless contextual analysis appears to indicate that the local population also used them. In the Roman world wax tablets were used for different types of texts, such as wills, contracts, accounting (codices accepti et expensi), letters and teaching86, and some of these functions echo those which Iberians ascribed to lead sheets. The distribution maps of Iberian leads and styli overlap tellingly (figs. 4 and 5). The exception is the middle Ebro valley, where Celtiberian and Iberian epigraphy only appeared in the 2nd-1st centuries BC, already under Roman rule. In this part, no lead documents can be found at all. Finally, lead sheets tend to disappear between the later 3^rd century and early 2^nd century BC, and it is in the ensuing century when bone styli spread. It is therefore probable that wax tablets did substitute lead sheets, which had, until then, been a traditional element of Iberian literacy.