The Epigraphic Carmen from Parreitas or the wreckages from a shipwreck at the Pederneira Lagoon

Abstract

In the first decade of this century in the context of the excavations of the archaeological site called Parreitas (freguesia do Bárrio), two fragments from a Latin inscription were found, being the only written document from this place. The preserved words, not belonging to the usual epigraphic vocabulary, leaded sagaciously to his first and only editor at the moment, A. Guerra, to classify these fragments as a part of a carmen Latinum epigraphicum (CLE). This paper shows new aspects of the inscription based on a methodologic approach combining epigraphic and philological criteria; additional observations about the scriptural support are provided; also a deep revision of the edited text, result of the study of metrics and its suitable epigraphic and literary fonts. This new evaluation leads to us to suggest that the inscription could be interpreted as an epitaph belonging to a person died in a shipwreck.