VALÈNCIA, SPAIN—Josep Montesinos of the Asociación RUVID, and Xaverio Ballester of the University of València are gathering information about the Latin spoken in Roman Hispania through the writing found on the molded and stamped ceramic wares kept in the Spanish Royal Academy of History. “Research focuses on the words written on the surface of these everyday ceramic pieces which can provide linguistic data, but also territorial and ethnological information,” Montesinos said in a press release. The pots bear marks and decorations made by their users, and include personal details such as proper names and colloquial phrases. The ceramics “allow us to approach the real language, popular Latin, very different from formal Latin or from that found in obituaries and, therefore, reveal the customs and habits of Roman Hispania,” Montesinos explained. To read about the Roman Empire's rise to dominance, see "Rome's Imperial Port."
