The oldest text known to date in the Basque language, spoken in what is now the Basque Country, was discovered in northern Spain, inscribed on a bronze hand over 2,000 years old.
Five words in “Basque language”, spoken by the inhabitants of the region at the time and ancestors of present-day Basque, are inscribed on a bronze hand from the 1st century BC (BC) found in June 2021 under the ruins of a castle in Irulegui, southeast of Pamplona, the capital of Navarra, regional authorities and a scientific society announced Monday.
These objects were hung from the doors to protect the houses from misfortune.
The first word was identified as “sorioneku”, which sounds like “zorioneko” in modern Basque, a word that means “good luck, auspicious”.
The translation of this first word is “a historical step of enormous importance”, both archaeologically and linguistically, explained the president of the Foral Community of Navarra, María Chivite.
“This is the oldest document and also the longest written in Basque” at the time, highlighted the scientific society Aranzadi in a press release.
This scientific group added that the finding confirms “the use of writing by the ancient inhabitants of this region.”
In addition, the experts also point out that this hand “certifies the use of Basque in the geographical area where it was discovered, at the beginning of the 1st century BC”.
The five words in the hand were written in a Vasconic variation of the Iberian script, a system used before the Latin alphabet became the dominant writing system.
The piece was found in the framework of the excavations that are being carried out in the city of Irulegi (Aranguren Valley), inhabited between the mid-Bronze Age (15th to 11th centuries BC) and the end of the Iron Age. (1st century BC) and destroyed by an attack by Roman troops.
The so-called “hand of Irulegi”, which is preserved in good condition, since it was buried and sealed by an adobe wall of the time, is a sheet of bronze, containing 53.19% tin, 40.87% copper and 2.16% lead. , something common in old alloys.
For Joaquín Gorrochategui, a specialist in paleolinguistics and professor of Indo-European Linguistics at the University of the Basque Country, this piece “is truly exceptional”, noting that it has characteristics that make it “Basque” and not generically “Iberian”.
Regarding the language used, the researcher indicated that “little can be said.”
“In Basque [atual língua basca] I would not say” that it is written, but “in Basque”, he underlined.
The inscription consists of five words spread over four lines. The alphabet with which the text is written belongs to the family of Iberian semisyllabaries, but it presents some characteristics that lead it to be classified as a specific subsystem of the Basque territory, among which the use of the ‘T’ sign stands out, not present in other subsystems.
The meaning of the other four words, “tenekebeekiratere”, “oTirtan”, “eseakari” and “eraukon”, is not yet known.
Source: TSF
