Could This PALAEOHISPANIC Text Be Related To BASQUE?

The Irulegi hand is a bronze artefact recovered from an Iron Age hillfort in Spain. Belonging to the Vascones culture, this object is of particular importance to researchers of Palaeohispanic languages because very few epigraphic examples have been found of Vasconic. A new paper published in the journal Antiquity discusses the text on the Irulegi hand, which is thought to have been an apotropaic device for warding off evil, and finds some similarities with Basque and Iberian.

#ancient #basque #ironage

✨ IN THIS EPISODE

00:00 Introduction
00:48 The Vascones
02:05 The Irulegi Hillfort
04:14 The Irulegi Hand

✨ JOIN MY CHANNEL

✨ SUPPORT VIA PATREON

✨ FOLLOW ME ON SOCIALS

Instagram & Facebook: @MegalithHunter
Twitter: @Megalith_Hunter

✨ REFERENCES

Aiestaran, M., Velaza, J., Gorrochategui, J., Usúa, C., Pujol, P., Alonso, E., Iriarte, E., Narbarte, J., Ruiz-González, D., Mendizabal-Sandonís, O. and Sesma, J., 2024. A Vasconic inscription on a bronze hand: writing and rituality in the Iron Age Irulegi settlement in the Ebro Valley. Antiquity, 98(397), pp.66-84.

✨ PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS

Images and diagrams about the Irulegi hand, credit: Aiestaran, M., et al. in the paper referenced above.

Iberian inscription, credit: Pguerin

Map of where Palaeohispanic languages were spoken, credit: Tautintanes

Hamsa depiction, credit: Sparkit

Region of the Vascones culture, credit: Sergio

Tartessian inscription, credit: Ángel M. Felicísimo

Public domain
Celtiberian inscription

[MegalithHunter]

Thank you to my channel members and patrons for supporting the channel! If anyone else would like to join my community here are the links: 😊
Patreon:

[barrywalser]

The ancient undeciphered languages are fascinating. I agree, there must be so much lost information there, waiting to be rediscovered. The hand representation seems to be such a universal human symbol. Is it because it is such a unique human characteristic? Thank You for the wonderful information Laura!

[travelusiontours]

I'm so glad you covered this! I actually worked on the dig in the castle in 2010 and the hillfort was indeed something there but no resources available at the time.

Considering how little we know about how Euskera came to be as a language and is so unique and strange within European cultures, I think this makes good sense.

[OAlem]

That text does look like Euskera. The origin of the Basques is one of the most fascinating mysteries in history. I've found some impressive megaliths here in Spain, in El Escorial and Galicia. I wonder how large their territory extended at their apex.

[LeRoy-te]

I agree totally with the probable abundance of information and history hidden within ancient writings. In fact, I was thinking about that just before you mentioned it. Please keep up the excellent work, Laura. You rock! 😎

[rehoboth_farm]

Thank you for doing a video on this. I find the Basque really fascinating. I guess you could say they are really the first people of Europe. Just fascinating from a linguistic, cultural and genetic perspective, kind of a time capsule from the neolithic era.

[newman]

Another fascinating topic precisely & concisely presented.

[LordDustinDeWynd]

03:02 GREAT place to put a fort/castle, look at that view!

[SurferGirl.o.o-cnvt]

Greetings 🙏 from Vermont USA ...
Im new to Ur channel and looking forward to seeing Ur works moving forward 💗 Peace Blessings 🙌

[ferjavato]

Congrats! It's rare finding so rigorous and informative explanations like this on YT.

[glennstanley]

Euskara probably predates the indo European wave by a vast swath of time and is now an isolate. Very cool. Zorionak! Seemed to me some South American cultures would shrink the heads of their enemies and wear them to ward off the spirits coming back to do harm from the afterlife. My in-laws are Basque. I could see them doing that.

[AntonyReyn]

I love me a nice Basquit and cuppa Tea, cheers from Mercia

[waynesworldofsci-tech]

I wonder how many more texts we’ll find now we know they had a written language.

Great catch Laura!

[rdklkje]

Going by that last comment you made, it sounds like you'll want to check out the videos about proto-Basque and PIE over on Jackson Crawford's channel, if you haven't already. One of them discusses the Irulegi hand, among many other things.

Juliette Blevins is an eminent historical phonologist whose work is generally speaking highly regarded and not to be ignored.

Unfortunately older Basquologists aren't too happy about this new 'kid' on their block seeing the forest they, naturally, didn't have the background to see as they built their careers around the study of the trees. But none of them have offered any substantive critique of her overall hypothesis, which posits proto-Basque as a sister or cousin language to PIE.

They've only engaged in a little nit picking over some of her novel reconstructions. Not enough to really make a dent in the strength of her hypothesis, though. Hopefully they'll come around at some point, before this becomes yet another example of how academic paradigm shifts tend to require funerals to open up space for them 🙃

[rafaelurrusti]

Mmmm... I am confused. I thought it was established that "la mano de Irulegi" was a typical hand like others found elsewhere in the Iberian Peninsula that ritualized a bond (like an alliance) between 2 people or group of people or leaders. Can not remember how are they called in Spain but it is something like "bond hands" (translated). One party would keep one hand and the other person the other hand as a sign and proof of commitment.

[vulpesvulpes]

Ha! In 5000 years they will find me in my kitchen surrounded by my Tupperware and spent shell casings and water Mellon rinds. My shopping list written in crayon on the back page of my coloring book.

Some guy will make his whole career trying to decipher “ cat litter”, “cheese” and “beer” written in purple crayon. And the horseshoe nailed over my door.
Nothing ever really changes.

Fox out

[pauliecook]

Ebro is 'alright bro' in maltese 😂

[garyworokevich]

I haven't got
I'm still playing around with Egyptian glyphs.

[christopherellis]

Ilibarri Elvira ( New town) Grenada.
There are coins in Bilboko museoa that have the name of the issuer on them.

[DataBeingCollected]

I wonder if there is some broader connection between Etruscan votive hands, the bronze hands of Sabazios, and the Sabaean Bronze Hand in Southern Arabia. Minaean traders from Arabia are documented as far north as the Island of Delos.