<bron186.htm> [Bronze Age Text]
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Left: Bone artifact,
75 X 27 mm, decorated by fine grooves and inscribed in letters of the Iberian
script, excavated by mr. & Mrs. Oliver with the Snapp's Bridge skeletons
in the course of the dig conducted by the Archeological Society of
Tennessee. WPG-2, Snapp's Bridge
Irish-Iberian Site, Washington Co., TN.
The artifact was thought to be a small comb. The Iberian letters measure from 7-10 mm in height and are
perfectly formed. Letters of the same
script occur in Basque inscriptions in Spain and in the Susquehanna Valley
(Fell 1982). Matching letters, when
found engraved on rocks, have been thought to be "marks made by
plowshares." Agíre, The Basque lexicographer, has confirmed Basque
readings. Right: The letters
conform to Greek early style of the 8th to 5th centuries BC, and are to be
read in boustrophedon. Rectified to
modern order we have: C-L C-R-T (Clo
criata = "Imprint-stamp for pottery"). Thus, the artifact is a potter's tool for
imprinting the surface relief on wet unfired pottery. The existence of such stamps was inferred
from the neat, uniform aspect of the surface patterns on the "Early
Woodland" pottery found in graves.
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