A Vasconic inscription on a bronze hand: writing and rituality in the Iron Age Irulegi settlement in the Ebro Valley

• Autores: Mattin Aiestaran, Javier Velaza, Joaquín Gorrochategui, Carmen Usúa, Pablo Pujol, Euken Alonso Gondrá, Eneko Iriarte Avilés, Josu Narbarte Hernández, Daniel Ruiz González, Oihane Mendizabal Sandonís, Jesús Sesma Sesma, José Antonio Mujika Alustiza, Jesús García Gazólaz, Berta Balduz, Juantxo Agirre Mauleon
• Localización: Antiquity, ISSN 0003-598X, Vol. 98, Nº 397, 2024, págs. 66-84
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Relatively few examples of Palaeohispanic writing have been recovered from the Vasconic territories of present-day Navarre, leading to the assumption that the Vascones were a pre-literate society. Here, the authors report on an inscription on a bronze hand recovered at the Iron Age site of Irulegi (Aranguren Valley, Navarre) in northern Spain. Its detailed linguistic analysis suggests that the script represents a graphic subsystem of Palaeohispanic that shares its roots with the modern Basque language and constitutes the first example of Vasconic epigraphy. The text inscribed on this artefact, which was found at the entrance of a domestic building, is interpreted as apotropaic, a token entreating good fortune.