Excerpt from The Numismatic Chronicle, Vol. 3 The characters commonly termed Celtiberian seem to possess a Phenician origin. The writing observable on the autonomous coins of Spain, proceeds, in most instances, from the left to the right, like the writing of Eastern nations, and of the Ethiopians. The form also of the Celtiberian characters bears evidence of very ancient transmission of the Phenician alphabet, at a period when as yet the form of the Phenician letters had undergone no alteration. We can, then, without fear of being charged with rashness acknowledge the Phenician origin of the two species of writing; viz., that from the left to right, and that from the right to left; and perhaps, also, of the boustrophedon kind. Without doubt this conclusion seems at open variance with all the Phenician inscriptions that we are in possession of: but we are not ignorant of the fact of the inscriptions that we are acquainted with being all of a comparatively recent epoch; not one of them can be shewn to ascend beyond the fourth century before the Christian era. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.