The Hand of Irulegi is a late

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

archaeological artifact unearthed in 2021 during excavations in the archaeological site of , next to the medieval castle of Irulegi, located in the municipality of

Aranguren Aranguren is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto ...

, to the south of

Pamplona Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region. Lying at near above ...

in Navarre, Spain. The bronze artifact has the distinctive shape of a right hand with extended fingers. It has five separate strings of letters, probably corresponding to five or more words, carved on the side that represents the back of a hand. It predates the earliest known attestation so far of a Basque word (with the exception of

proper names A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', ''Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...

) by around 1000 years.

Context and form

The "Hand of Irulegi", es, Mano de Irulegui has been a working title assigned to the archaeological find. It dates from the 1st century BC. At the time, during the period of Sertorian Wars, the native population took sides and the settlement came under attack, extending the fire throughout the fortified town as a result. As outlined by Juantxo Agirre Mauleon, secretary of the Science Society Aranzadi, which conducted the excavation, the roof of the dwelling collapsed, which allowed for the preservation of archaeological remains under the debris. The hand may have hung from the door, where it provided protection for the house. According to a report in ''The Economist'', 'such striking hand-shaped designs are unknown in Spanish or neighbouring cultures'.

Inscription

The text can be transliterated from

Northeastern Iberian script The northeastern Iberian script, also known as Levantine Iberian or Iberian, was the main means of written expression of the Iberian language. The language is also expressed by the southeastern Iberian script and the Greco-Iberian alphabet ...

as:

The first string of letters reads , echoed in the present-day Basque language by the widely used , a

compound word In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or sign) that consists of more than one stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs when ...

meaning "(of) good fortune(s)". The word is accompanied by at least four other words whose meaning is not as apparent. The Hand of Irulegi is the oldest surviving example of the Basque language, written in

Iberian script The Iberian scripts are the Paleohispanic scripts that were used to represent the extinct Iberian language. Most of them are typologically unusual in that they are semi-syllabic rather than purely alphabetic.Ferrer, J., Moncunill, N., V ...

, and adapted to allow for the language's own characteristics. The inscription contains a -shaped letter that has only been found in Vasconic areas, previously seen on two coins. The phonetic value of this letter is unknown, so it is left untransliterated as capital above. Irulegiko eskua - Nafarroako Gobernuaren irudi galeria 28

Irulegiko eskua - Nafarroako Gobernuaren irudi galeria 28

Discovery

Although announced on 14 November 2022, with the intervention of the regional president of Navarre, the unearthing goes back to June 2021, when the excavating team led by Mattin Aiestaran found it. The piece was then handed over to researchers for their consideration, who have hailed it as highly important. On 18 January 2022, during the cleaning process, Carmen Usua, the restorer, noticed that there was writing present.

Epigrapher Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

s found that the hand had a natural downward position.

Notes

References

External links