The Sinaia Lead Plates: A Reassessment of a Contested Epigraphic and Iconographic Corpus

陈The Sinaia Lead Plates constitute a corpus of over one hundred inscribed and illustrated metal plates reportedly discovered in Romania in the late nineteenth century, of which forty-six are currently preserved. Frequently classified as modern forgeries, the assemblage has not previously been subjected to a systematic, corpus-level archeological analysis. This study presents an integrated reassessment of the plates combining material examination, epigraphic classification, linguistic analysis, iconographic evaluation, and contextual review of historical references. Rather than presupposing either authenticity or forgery, the article adopts a structural and methodological approach, examining internal coherence, technical parameters, and functional plausibility. The analysis identifies consistent correlations between writing systems, linguistic patterns, iconographic organization, and historical associations across the corpus. Arguments advanced in support of the forgery hypothesis are reassessed within a comparative methodological framework, highlighting both their contributions and their limitations. Although the question of authenticity cannot be resolved conclusively on the basis of currently available evidence, the structural integration and conceptual organization of the corpus challenge simplified explanatory models and underscore the need for sustained interdisciplinary investigation.