Las pizarras numerales de época posromanauna aproximación horizontal

Abstract

Numerical slates from the Late Antiquity period that appeared in the central area of the Iberian Peninsula, have aroused considerable academic interest. Some of the liveliest and still open debates concerns the significance of their signs, and their function. Their identification with the Roman numbering system is currently the most widely accepted hypothesis, to the extent that it has become more or less taken for granted and has shaped theories about the function and dating of numerical slates. In this view, this numerical system could be made only by the elite, because it needs arithmetical knowledge. The present study questions the validity of this premise by undertaking a comparative diachronic analysis of the signs I, X, and V on the slates relative to those used in Roman numbering and in some tally sticks. I propose a new reading of these signs as not straightforwardly Roman, but rather as the result of horizontal relationships relating to the cultural and economic needs of the communities in which this numerical system is present. The local and rural use of this accounting system has been corroborated through the study of the archaeological contexts of these slates, which shows that most of them appear associated with a peasant background between 5th century from at least 6th century. Finally, the analysis of contemporaneous sources together with anthropological examples shows accounting needs related, but not only, with stockbreeding to which this numerical system could be applied.