Hand of Irulegi

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The Hand of Irulegi is a late Iron Age archaeological artifact unearthed in 2021 during excavations in the archaeological site of Irulegi (Navarre) (eu),^[1] next to the medieval castle of Irulegi, located in the municipality of Aranguren, 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. At the time of its discovery, it constituted the earliest known attestation of a Basque word (with the exception of proper names) by around 1000 years.

Context and form

The "Hand of Irulegi"^{[lower-alpha 1]} 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.^[3] 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.^[3] According to a report in The Economist, 'such striking hand-shaped designs are unknown in Spanish or neighbouring cultures'.^[4] It has been linked to Iberian and Celtiberian trophies representing the cut hand of a defeated enemy.^[5] However, similar objects known as hamsa are found in various cultures of the Middle East and North Africa, including Phoenician colonies in the Iberian peninsula.

Inscription

The inscription was incised and later marked over with dots. The letters do not match exactly in the scratched and the dotted version. It is unclear if both versions are from the same author or the dotted version is from a second author.^[6]

The text as published before cleaning can be transliterated from Northeastern Iberian script as:

sorioneku · {n}
tenekebeekiŕateŕe[n]
oTiŕtan · eseakaŕi
eŕaukon ·

After cleaning, the texts are transliterated as:

The dotted text differs in the use of ⟨·⟩. While it could have been used as a word divider, it is used at the end of the lines 1 and 4, where the line break would already signal a different word. On line 3 it has a different aspect, leading to questions about its use. The symbol transliterated as ⟨ř⟩ corresponds to the Iberian letter usually transliterated as ⟨ŕ⟩ but with a horizontal line across the descender. This is the first time this shape is found. It may represent a multiple alveolar consonant.^[7] A symbol scratched in line 2 as ⟨ř⟩ is dotted as be, perhaps by the dotting author misreading the incision.^[6]

The first string of letters was initially read as sorioneku, echoed in the present-day Basque language by the widely used zorioneko, a declined word meaning "(of) good fortune(s)", that however is not attested in Basque before the 18th century.^[8] 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, and adapted to allow for the language's own characteristics.^[3][9] The inscription contains a ⟨⟩-shaped letter that has only been found in Vasconic areas,^[10] previously seen on two coins. The phonetic value of this letter is unknown, so it is left untransliterated as capital ⟨T⟩ above. Two unpublished coins found at the same location are minted in oTtikes.^[5]

Transcription of characters into the Latin alphabet before the cleaning.

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.^[3][10]

On 18 January 2022, during the cleaning process, Carmen Usua, the restorer, noticed that there was writing present.^[11] Epigraphers found that the hand had a natural downward position.^[12]

Gallery

• 

  This metallic hand from 2nd-3rd century AD Zafar, Yemen with a dedication to Ta'lab has been offered as a distant parallel.^[5]

• 

  The 1st-2nd century AD La Vispesa (Huesca province) stela (exhibited upside down) features downwards cut hands and a dismembered handless corpse.^[5]

See also

• Hamsa
• Iturissa
• Iruña-Veleia
• Aquitanian language
• Proto-Basque language
• History of the Basque language
• Paleohispanic scripts

Notes

References

External links

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