HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Veleia was a
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
town in
Hispania Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hi ...
, now located in the
Basque Autonomous Community The Basque Country (; eu, Euskadi ; es, País Vasco ), also called Basque Autonomous Community ( eu, Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoa, links=no, EAE; es, Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco, links=no, CAPV), is an autonomous community of Spain. It ...
,
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...
. The site is located in the municipality of Iruña de Oca, 10 kilometers west of Vitoria. The town was an important station on the
Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...
''
ab Asturica Burdigalam Ab Asturica Burdigalam (numbered as Via XXXIV on the Antonine Itinerary) was a Roman road that linked the towns of ''Asturica Augusta'' (modern Astorga) in Gallaecia and ''Burdigala'' (modern Bordeaux) in Aquitania. The Antonine Itinerary mentio ...
'' that ran parallel to the coast of the
Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...
. At its apogee, the city could have been inhabited by some five to ten thousand people, and apparently went through different cycles of prosperity and decline into the
Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...
until it was finally abandoned. It has been argued (e.g. J.M.Lacarra) that the location of Iruña is actually the ''Victoriacum'' founded by
Liuvigild Liuvigild, Leuvigild, Leovigild, or ''Leovigildo'' ( Spanish and Portuguese), ( 519 – 586) was a Visigothic King of Hispania and Septimania from 568 to 586. Known for his Codex Revisus or Code of Leovigild, a law allowing equal rights between ...
in his campaigns against the
Vascones The Vascones were a pre-Roman tribe who, on the arrival of the Romans in the 1st century, inhabited a territory that spanned between the upper course of the Ebro river and the southern basin of the western Pyrenees, a region that coincides wi ...
(581), since only a very small portion of the actual town has been unearthed so far by archaeologists. The archaeological site of Iruña-Veleia is the most important from the Roman period in the Basque Country. It was alleged to contain the oldest known texts written in the Basque language as well as, allegedly, the oldest representation of the
crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagi ...
of
Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...
found to date, but later it was said that the findings were
forgeries Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbi ...
. Other authors favored their genuinely ancient provenance, in agreement with the stratigraphic dating performed by the archaeologists who made the discoveries. In June 2020 the archaeologist who had made the claims, Eliseo Gil, was pronounced guilty of fraud and connivance with an external collaborator in presenting a false report. The court ruled that the pieces had been altered “by himself or through third persons with contemporary incisions to simulate that they contained inscriptions of the same ancient age as the objects in which they were engraved and that they possessed a historical and cultural value of which they were devoid.”. The verdict was appealed by Gil, but the appeal was dismissed. Subsequently, Gil filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court. In parallel to the court developments, a scholarly controversy on the authenticity of the inscriptions is taking place.


Chronology


Bronze and Iron ages

The town was founded in the 8th century BC, in the Late
Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
. The houses from this period, rectangular and round with adobe walls and thatched roofs, are similar to those found at the nearby site of Atxa (Vitoria).


Roman period

In the first half of the 1st century some of these houses were replaced by others of Roman style (''
domus In Ancient Rome, the ''domus'' (plural ''domūs'', genitive ''domūs'' or ''domī'') was the type of town house occupied by the upper classes and some wealthy freedmen during the Republican and Imperial eras. It was found in almost all the ma ...
''). This architectural romanization continued as the century advanced. The late Roman city (3rd and 4th centuries) is better known. It shows signs of decay and the construction of a wall that encloses an eleven hectare area. The town survived into the 5th century after Roman power had disappeared from the region, but by the end of the century only burial plots in abandoned buildings are found.


Modern age

There was an abbey at the site at least since the 16th century whose buildings remained visible until the mid 19th century.


Sensational findings


Developments

The Iruña-Veleia site had been granted 3.72 million
euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
s funding by the Basque regional government. In 2006, a series of sensational findings at Iruña-Veleia were announced to the press by the director of the archaeological mission. These included what would have been the oldest non-
onomastic Onomastics (or, in older texts, onomatology) is the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. An '' orthonym'' is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onomastic study. Onomastics can be helpful in data mining, ...
al texts in
Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
, which were hailed as the first evidence of written Basque. Also, it was announced the discovery of a series of inscriptions and drawings on pottery fragments, some of which refer to Egyptian history and even some written in
Egyptian hieroglyphs Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1, ...
. Finally, it was announced the finding of the earliest representation of the
Calvary Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early medie ...
(crucifixion of Jesus) found anywhere to date. Eventually, a committee of experts, the "Comisión Científica Asesora" ("Scientific Advisory Committee") was constituted by the provincial government of Álava to study the findings. The committee was originally made up of nine academics, all professors of the University of the Basque Country in Vitoria, along with three members of the provincial government of Álava, the director of the Provincial Museum of Archaeology, and the director of the excavation (Eliseo Gil), and was presided by the Culture Deputy of Álava herself. Later others, although not members of the commission were consulted from Madrid, Italy and Britain. Alicia Canto, professor of classical archaeology and epigraphy at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, cast doubts over the capacity of such committee to elucidate the veracity of the sherd inscriptions based on linguistic grounds, as well as highlighting the contradictory positions shown by some of its members while noting that some claimed texts were "beyond salvation". At its fifth meeting on November 19, 2008, every report except that by Gil found problems with the so-called "exceptionals". The culture deputy of
Álava Álava ( in Spanish) or Araba (), officially Araba/Álava, is a Provinces of Spain, province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, heir of the ancient Basque señoríos#Lords of Álav ...
, Lorena Lopez de la Calle, dubbed the case the "biggest archaeological fraud in the history of the
Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...
", and demoted the chief technical official of the Archaeological Museum of Álava for her support to the authenticity of the findings. Ultimately, one of the members of the committee, Julio Núñez, became the new director of the Iruña-Veleia archaeological excavations.


Forgery case

The provincial government of Alava pursued legal actions against the alleged perpetrators of the supposed fraud. The sponsors of the project (Euskotren) also brought charges against the archaeological team, but the case was dismissed, and only the lawsuit filed by the provincial government of Alava remained in force. Eliseo Gil has repeatedly denied the accusations against him, defended the authenticity of his findings, and requested that decisive physical tests be performed on the pieces to scientifically resolve the issue. In June 2020 Eliseo Gil was pronounced guilty of fraud and connivance with an external collaborator in presenting a false report. The court ruled that the pieces had been altered “by himself or through third persons with contemporary incisions to simulate that they contained inscriptions of the same ancient age as the objects in which they were engraved and that they possessed a historical and cultural value of which they were devoid.”. The verdict was appealed by Gil, but the appeal was dismissed. Subsequently, Gil filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court. In August 2020, a group of 14 scientists published a letter in several Basque newspapers, warning that the so-called forgery is a scientific controversy that remains unresolved, and that "scientific issues must be resolved in scientific forums, such as scientific journals and conferences, not in courts of law". This letter was signed by prominent archaeologists, among others.


Scholarly controversy

In disagreement with the opinions of some members of the Scientific Advisory Committee constituted by the Provincial Government of Alava, positing that the graffiti found at Iruña-Veleia are recent forgeries or cannot be ancient, a number of scholars in different fields, including archaeology, epigraphy, ancient history, linguistics, and Egyptology, from four countries, have made public their views favorable to their authenticity through reports, articles, books, and conference presentations. They contend that the stratigraphic dating, placing the pieces in Roman times, was correctly performed, that there are parallels of the findings in ancient times, and that the linguistic features of the Basque graffiti are compatible with known historical features of the Basque language. Linguist Joaquín Gorrochategui and epigraphist Juan Santos Yanguas, members of the Scientific Advisory Committee, have made public their arguments in support of the falsehood of the graffiti in conference proceedings, in which they contend that the graffiti show anachronistic linguistic and epigraphic features that are incompatible with an ancient date


See also

* Basque language * Caristii * Autrigones *
Ab Asturica Burdigalam Ab Asturica Burdigalam (numbered as Via XXXIV on the Antonine Itinerary) was a Roman road that linked the towns of ''Asturica Augusta'' (modern Astorga) in Gallaecia and ''Burdigala'' (modern Bordeaux) in Aquitania. The Antonine Itinerary mentio ...
(the
Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...
that run through Veleia). *
Glosas Emilianenses The Glosas Emilianenses (Spanish for "glosses of he monastery of SaintMillán/Emilianus") are glosses written in the 10th or 11th century to a 9th-century Latin codex. These marginalia are important as early examples of writing in a form of Ro ...
for the actual oldest text in
Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...


Bibliography

* Barandiaran, Alberto
''Veleia afera''
Elkar, 2010. * Elkin, Mike (2009):

''Archaeology'' Volume 62 Number 5, September/October 2009. * Iglesias, Hector (2009), « Les inscriptions de Veleia-Iruña »
Les inscriptions de Veleia-Iruña (version entièrement revue et augmentée d'un index alphabétique).
Artxiker, bibliothèque numérique d'IKER, Centre de recherche sur la langue et les textes basques du CNRS, Baiona-Bayonne.


References


External links


Iruña-Veleia Official website
(in English)
Official reports on the controversial findings


* ttp://iesusioshemarian.wordpress.com/ Ieshu Ioshe Marian blog that follows in detail the controversy surrounding the excavation (in Spanish)
En el ángulo oscuro
blog that follows in detail the controversy surrounding the excavation (in Spanish). Most contributors believe that the investigation of the case was insufficient.
SOS-IruñaVeleia
Web site with a complete overview of the findings, all the informs and a lot of information about the affair. This website defends the need of more investigation about the archaeological evidence (in English, Spanish and Basque).
Iruña Veleia y sus "revolucionarios" grafitos VIII: Más cerca de la autoría
blog created by epigraphist Prof. A.Mª. Canto discussing the alleged findings and the judicial research on a modern author of the inscriptions.
AmaAta
Blog with news and opinions about the case. {{DEFAULTSORT:Iruna-Veleia Populated places established in the 8th century BC Populated places disestablished in the 5th century Basque history Basque language Veleia Álava Former populated places in Spain Indigenous ancient cities in Spain Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in Álava Hoaxes in Spain