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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Letras trazadas en hueso. Alfabetos de la València islámica sobre escápulas de bóvidos

subject

description

A study is presented on the scapulae of bovids recovered in the urban excavations of the city of València, with chronologies ranging from the ninth century to the beginning of the thirteenth, all of them with Arabic alphabets incised or chiseled. For the first time they have been studied jointly and three new specimens are unveiled, two from Street Verge de la Misericòrdia, and one found in the recent excavations of the Islamic wall. To undertake the functional analysis of these bones, it is first to address the examination of the Arabic alphabet and its social uses. From an archaeological and epigraphic point of view, the results are presented and the hypotheses that have been formulated and discussed about the fate of these objects are analyzed: one prophylactic and one educational. It is proposed to add the thesis, according to the characteristics of the Valencian material, of its artisanal character. After highlighting the importance of these pieces as examples of literacy on the part of society and valuing the artisanal work carried out for their elaboration, it is proposed that they are objects used for didactic purposes to promote learning and that they would be used as a sample to copy the letters and practice artisan techniques.