Bronze Hand Inscribed with Rare Vasconic Script Linked With Basque Found in Spain

A stunningly rare artifact found at an Iron Age site in Spain contains an example of the equally rare ancient Vasconic script. Dating to the first century BC, the artifact in question is a flattened bronze hand inscribed with a written inscription traced to the mostly extinct Vasconic language family, a pre-European fixture on the Iberian Peninsula.

Aerial photograph of the site of Irulegi with the excavation site where the bronze hand inscribed in Vasconic script was unearthed in the background. (Aiestaran, M. et. al / Antiquity Publications Ltd)

Excavation Reveals Bronze Artifact Inscribed with Vasconic Script

The flattened metal hand was found during excavations that took place several years ago near the village of Irulegi in the Aranguren Valley of Navarre, a region of northern Spain that was the home of the medieval Kingdom of Navarre. This kingdom occupied lands on both sides of the western Pyrenees, the rugged mountain range that forms the border between Spain and France.

The bronze artifact is approximately 5.5 by six inches in size (14 by 15 centimeters). It is neither a left hand nor a right hand but includes five long fingers, all of which are aligned and pointed downward. There is a small hole drilled in the top of the hand, suggesting it was meant to be hung from a nail.

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The Bronze Irulegi hand, showing the ancient script. (Aiestaran, M. et. al / Antiquity Publications Ltd)

This is the first time a hand of this type has ever been recovered from an Iron Age European site. Nevertheless, it was the language found scratched into its surface that captured the attention of the Spanish historians, archaeologists and linguists who have now revealed its astonishingly ancient origin.

While the metal object only features four lines of text, one of the words matches a word that means “good fortune” in the modern-day Basque language (Euskara). The Basque language stands as the sole survivor of the ancient Vasconic language tree, amplifying the excitement surrounding the discovery of a clear connection between the Vasconic script and modern Basque.

The excavation site where the Irulegi hand inscribed with Vasconic script was unearthed. (Aiestaran, M. et. al / Antiquity Publications Ltd)

Linguistic Detectives Discover Roots of Basque Language

To complete a thorough and complete linguistic analysis of the intriguing inscription, the Aranzadi Science Society, which specializes in the study of the Basque culture both ancient and modern, recruited a team of specialists with experience in symbol interpretation. The team was led by Aranzadi Society researcher Mattin Aiestaran, an archaeologist from the Universidad del Pais Vasco (University of the Basque Country) in Bilbao, Spain.

After finishing their study, Aiestaran and his fellow researchers concluded that the inscription could unquestionably be classified as Vasconic. This language predates the arrival of the Romans on the Iberian Peninsula in the third century BC, having been spoken and written by cultures that date back many centuries before that time.

“The script represents a graphic subsystem of Paleohispanic [pre-Roman language] that shares its roots with the modern Basque language and constitutes the first example of Vasconic epigraphy,” the experts wrote in a new paper about their research into the Vasconic script inscription published in Antiquity. “The text inscribed on this artifact, which was found at the entrance of a domestic building, is interpreted as apotropaic, a token entreating good fortune.”

Sketch of a house, indicating where the bronze hand inscribed in Vasconic script was likely displayed. (Aiestaran, M. et. al / Antiquity Publications Ltd)

Basque is the last remaining of these ancient languages, which were widely spoken before invaders from the Eurasian Steppe brought Indo-European languages into Iberia during the Bronze Age, which ended around 700 BC. But the discovery of Vasconic script at an Iron Age archaeological site suggests that the older language persisted in some parts of the region until the very end of pre-Roman times, in the first century BC (the Roman conquest of Iberia concluded in 19 BC).

Notably, the region where the hand was unearthed was once the home of the extinct Aquitani or Vascones people. This Bronze Age—Iron Age culture occupied the lands of northern Spain and southwestern France, in the territories surrounding the Pyrenees mountains on all sides. They survived until the Roman conquest, and after that point they were gradually assimilated into the Roman culture.

The Aquitani spoke their own version of the Vasconic language, from which the Basque language is descended. Presumably, they were responsible for the bronze hand and its inscription in Vasconic script, which has been dated to the first century BC. 

The Bronze hand of Irulegi and its Vasconic script inscription. (Aiestaran, M. et. al / Antiquity Publications Ltd)

The Secrets of the Bronze Hand of Irulegi and Its Vasconic Script

The bronze hand, which its discoverers labeled the Irulegi hand, was unearthed inside the remains in a house found in the center of an ancient settlement. “The location in which the hand was found suggests that it was nailed to a wooden support at the entrance of the building, to be displayed and read,” the study authors wrote.

“The orientation of the text and the presence of a single hole for fastening further suggest that the hand was intended to hang with the fingers pointing downwards.” The researchers believe the people who hung the object saw it as a good luck charm, and they speculate that the hand may relate to a specific custom associated with the ancient Iberian people.

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According to Classical Greek sources, the Iberians would sometimes cut off the heads and hands of their defeated enemies and hang them over the entranceways of houses, temples or villages. It is known that this custom existed in one form or another into the Iron Age, from displays of decapitated heads found during excavations in present-day Catalonia.

“The Irulegi hand must be considered as a well-integrated element within the cultural context of the settlement,” Aiestaran noted in a press release announcing his team’s Vasconic script discovery. “The hand would have had a ritual function, either to attract good luck or as an offering to an indigenous god or goddess of fortune.”

The first word on the first line found on the hand translates in the Latin alphabet to the word sorioneku or sorioneke. This is a near-perfect match for the Basque word zorioneko, which means “of good fortune.”

Finding such a clear connection between an ancient Vasconic inscription and the Basque language was bound to generate excitement in the archaeological, historical and linguistic communities. The Basque language is an outlier in Western Europe, one that harks back to a mysterious, long-lost culture, and researchers into ancient history are always searching for artifacts that will reveal more about what that culture was really like.

“The discovery of the Hand of Irulegi has opened a new horizon to unravel the history behind the most enigmatic language still alive in Europe: the Basque language,” explained Aranzadi Science Society representative Mikel Edeso Egia, who was not directly involved in the new study. “Unearthing this exceptional object has brought significant advances in the archaeological and linguistic worlds. But it has also opened up many new questions.”

Top image: Researcher holding the bronze Irulegi hand inscribed in Vasconic script. Source: Aiestaran, M. et. al / Antiquity Publications Ltd

By Nathan Falde