2,100-Year-Old Bronze Hand Contains Ancient Text Which Could Point to the Origin of a Mysterious Language

During the Late Iron Age, a cultural group known as the Vascones occupied the western Pyrenees in present-day Navarre, Spain. The region has received little archaeological attention, and the ancient societies of this area remain poorly understood. Beyond the classical sources from Roman literature, only a few are known about their language, writing, culture, and beliefs.

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/ Toledano0)

Pre-Roman Vasconic Communities

In 2007, experts started investigating the Irulegi hillfort in the Aranguren Valley, focusing on excavating a medieval castle. By 2018, researchers examined the late prehistoric settlement found on a flat area of the hilltop, hoping to gain more insight into the Iron Age societies in the region.

In 2021, archaeologists unearthed a hand-shaped bronze amulet called the Irulegi hand, which is assumed to be 2,100 years old. What makes this artifact remarkable is the presence of an inscription that could be related to Basque.

Led by archaeologist Mattin Aiestaran from the University of the Basque Country, the research team geo-referenced all the artifacts recovered from the habitational structure of the site. They conclude that the ancient text engraved on the back of the hand is a rare example of an ancient language spoken in Europe more than 5,000 years ago, traditionally used in northeastern Spain before the Romans arrived.

In the paper "A Vasconic inscription on a bronze hand: writing and rituality in the Iron Age Irulegi settlement in the Ebro Valley," the experts revealed that the inscription is the oldest and longest ever found in a Vasconic language. Until now, the only known ancient texts of Vasconic origin are mainly from a few words engraved in coins from the region.

At least five words, written with 18 characters, were identified on the "palm" of the hand. Using the Latin alphabet, the first word of the inscription is "sorioneku" or "sorione." This resembles the modern Basque word "zorioneko," which means "good fortune." The similarity made the researchers think that the word's meaning is the same and that the artifact may have been displayed outside a building as a good luck charm. As Aiestaran noted, the bronze hand would have had a ritual function to attract good luck offerings to deities.

A Lost Language

Basque is the only surviving language in the Vasconic society. Although its origins are unclear, it is believed that it might have been derived from the ancient Vasconic language, es which used to be spoken in the northeastern region of the Iberian Peninsula.

Linguists consider modern Basque as an "isolated" language since it is unlike any other spoken language. At the same time, most modern European languages belong to the Indo-European family of languages. Basqueue resembles the now-extinct Aquitanian language used in northeastern Spain and southwestern France before the Romans arrived.

According to the Vasconic substrate hypothesis, Vasconic languages might have influenced the names of places across Western Europe, and some Vasconic words could even be found in some Western European languages. There is also a theory that these languages were already widespread before the arrival of the Indo-European.