Archeologists have been digging at the Irulegi Castle in Spain, where they discovered an Iron Age settlement and fort that’s about 2,000 years old. The blockbuster find of the dig came in June 2021 when a 2,100-year-old bronze plate shaped like an extended right hand emerged from the soil. It’s been dubbed La Mano de Irulegi, or the Hand of Irulegi, and is a hugely significant find for linguists, historians, and especially the Basque people.
That’s because of the 40 symbols etched into it, the earliest record the Basque language. The word etched into the bronze that cracked the code is sorioneku, which closely resembles the word zorioneko in modern Basque, meaning “good fortune.” But here’s the cool part: Until now, everyone assumed that the Basques were illiterate until the Romans showed up and taught them how to write in Latin. This find predates the Romans in the area by 2,150 years or so.
Edurne Arostegui, education specialist at the Basque Museum in Boise, told Boise State Public Radio just how significant this is to the culture.
“I have a lot of friends and family in the Basque country, I lived there, and my phone blew up,” she said, “I mean, everybody was just ecstatic.”
Idaho has the one of the largest populations of Basque people outside of Spain, with Boise having the largest concentration in the U.S. The city plays host every five years (in nonpandemic times) to the international Jaialdi festival. It’s a big deal for the city and state, and this find is resonating in the diaspora.
The Basque language is indigenous to the region that spans parts northern Spain and southern France and is a language isolate, evolving purely independently from other languages. That led linguists and historians to believe that without the influence of other Europeans, the Basque must have been illiterate.
“It takes our idea of early languages and sometimes early civilizations as being kind of caveman or kind of an early rudimentary language that are very simple,” said John Bieter, a history professor at Boise State studying Basque immigration. “And it just dumps that on its head.”
Professor Javier Velaza, a linguist on Barcelona, said that La Mano de Irulegi doesn’t solve the mystery of the Basque language’s origins, but remains critical. “From a scientific point of view, this discovery is very important because it’s the first text preserved in Basque country and found where ancestors to the Basques lived,” he said.
“You would think that these languages with much bigger powers would have subsumed ours,” Arostegui said, “but we've been able to maintain it for such a long time.” The language is “really integral to our identity,” Arostegui added.
The social history of the Basque people is a huge part of that. The language was outlawed during Francisco Franco’s authoritarian rule in Spain, Arostegui explained. “From 1939 to 1975, you know, you could not use it in public. You would be fined,” she said. ”My name would have been illegal, right? You could not name your child Edurne.”
The language was kept alive during the Franco regime outside of Spain. “I always point out that it's thanks to the diaspora that a lot of these elements are still around because no one ever banned Basque here in Boise,” Arostegui added.
“Could you imagine seeing in hieroglyphic and just being able to read it from your present language, that is how it felt for me,” Arostegui said. “Just connecting to somebody 2000 years ago is a once-in-a-lifetime sort of moment.”
That’s because of the 40 symbols etched into it, the earliest record the Basque language. The word etched into the bronze that cracked the code is sorioneku, which closely resembles the word zorioneko in modern Basque, meaning “good fortune.” But here’s the cool part: Until now, everyone assumed that the Basques were illiterate until the Romans showed up and taught them how to write in Latin. This find predates the Romans in the area by 2,150 years or so.
Edurne Arostegui, education specialist at the Basque Museum in Boise, told Boise State Public Radio just how significant this is to the culture.
“I have a lot of friends and family in the Basque country, I lived there, and my phone blew up,” she said, “I mean, everybody was just ecstatic.”
Idaho has the one of the largest populations of Basque people outside of Spain, with Boise having the largest concentration in the U.S. The city plays host every five years (in nonpandemic times) to the international Jaialdi festival. It’s a big deal for the city and state, and this find is resonating in the diaspora.
The Basque language is indigenous to the region that spans parts northern Spain and southern France and is a language isolate, evolving purely independently from other languages. That led linguists and historians to believe that without the influence of other Europeans, the Basque must have been illiterate.
“It takes our idea of early languages and sometimes early civilizations as being kind of caveman or kind of an early rudimentary language that are very simple,” said John Bieter, a history professor at Boise State studying Basque immigration. “And it just dumps that on its head.”
Professor Javier Velaza, a linguist on Barcelona, said that La Mano de Irulegi doesn’t solve the mystery of the Basque language’s origins, but remains critical. “From a scientific point of view, this discovery is very important because it’s the first text preserved in Basque country and found where ancestors to the Basques lived,” he said.
“You would think that these languages with much bigger powers would have subsumed ours,” Arostegui said, “but we've been able to maintain it for such a long time.” The language is “really integral to our identity,” Arostegui added.
The social history of the Basque people is a huge part of that. The language was outlawed during Francisco Franco’s authoritarian rule in Spain, Arostegui explained. “From 1939 to 1975, you know, you could not use it in public. You would be fined,” she said. ”My name would have been illegal, right? You could not name your child Edurne.”
The language was kept alive during the Franco regime outside of Spain. “I always point out that it's thanks to the diaspora that a lot of these elements are still around because no one ever banned Basque here in Boise,” Arostegui added.
“Could you imagine seeing in hieroglyphic and just being able to read it from your present language, that is how it felt for me,” Arostegui said. “Just connecting to somebody 2000 years ago is a once-in-a-lifetime sort of moment.”