Mysterious ancient language revealed on bronze hand from 2,100 years ago

A bronze hand from 2,100 years ago has revealed rare evidence of a mysterious ancient language, with researchers determining that the inscription is the oldest and longest example of Vasconic to date.

A team of researchers analyzed the artifact, found at the site of an Iron Age hillfort known as Irulegi in Navarre, northern Spain, for a newly published study in the journal Antiquity—and also suggested the words written on it could be linked to modern-day Basque.

Vasconic was spoken by a pre-Roman people known as the Vascones, who once inhabited the western Pyrenees in an area that corresponds primarily with modern-day Navarre, as well as parts of the Spanish regions of La Rioja and Aragon. And as one of only a few known examples of it, the inscription offers fascinating insights into one of Europe’s least understood ancient languages.

The Irulegi hillfort is located at the summit of a peak of the same name in the foothills of the Pyrenees, a mountain range that straddles the border of France and Spain.

“Its long sequence of occupation and excellent state of preservation make it one of the most significant fortified settlements in the western Pyrenees,” the study authors wrote.

Yet the Navarre foothills have received little archaeological attention to date and the Iron Age societies of this area remain poorly known.

“In particular, beyond insights from the Roman-period literature, very little is understood about the language, writing, identity and beliefs of these pre-Roman Vasconic communities,” the researchers added.

With relatively few examples of pre-Roman writing recovered from the territories once inhabited by the Vascones, this has previously led to the assumption that this group was a pre-literate society. But the results of the latest study help to challenge this view, providing support for a growing awareness that the ancient Vascones knew and made use of writing—at least to a degree.

The researchers conducted a detailed linguistic analysis of the script on the hand, finding that it may be related to the Basque language, which is predominantly spoken in a region at the western edge of the Pyrenees on both sides of the Spain-France border.

Basque, or Euskara, is considered by linguists to be a language isolate, meaning it has no direct links to any other known language family. In fact, it is the last surviving descendent of the “Paleo-European” languages. These predate the Indo-European languages brought to the continent by migrants from the Eurasian Steppe during the Bronze Age, which are now dominant in the region today.

A number of hypotheses have been proposed over the centuries to explain the origin of Basque, but no links to other languages have been definitively established. Perhaps the only plausible idea put forward to date connects Basque to the Aquitaine language spoken in southwestern France.

While much more research will be required to tie the script found on the bronze hand to Basque, the inscription provides tantalizing evidence of a potential link.

The researchers suggest that the first word may be spelled in the Latin alphabet as “sorioneku” or “sorioneke”—both of which bear a resemblance to the Basque word “zorioneko,” meaning “of good fortune.”

“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,” Mikel Edeso Egia from the Aranzadi Science Society—a non-profit organization based in Spain’s Basque region that coordinated the research team—said in a press release. “Unearthing this exceptional object has brought significant advances in the archaeological and linguistic worlds. But it has also opened up many new questions.”

The similarity with the Basque word for good fortune also fits with the location of the artifact’s discovery—in 2021, with the script spotted the following year—at the entrance of a domestic building in the center of the hillfort. In combination with the inscription, this indicates that the bronze hand was an important object for the settlement’s residents.

The researchers suggest that it may have been hung outside the entrance of a property as a good-luck charm, or as a dedication to a pre-Roman deity.

“The Irulegi hand must be considered as a well-integrated element within the cultural context of the settlement,” the study’s lead author, Mattin Aiestaran with the University of the Basque Country, said. “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.”

Aiestaran added that the lack of comparative texts makes it difficult, currently, to prove a direct link between the Vasconic language spoken at Irulegi and present-day Basque.

But the inscription on the hand suggests that other closely related languages may have persisted at least until the Romans arrived in the region, according to the researchers.

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