Abstract
760 officially recognized scripts on ceramics from Iruña-Veleia excavated by the archaeology firm Lurmen S.L. (approximately between years 2002-2008)have been analyzed. A number of these ceramics contains scripts which may be assimilated to Iberian/Tartessian writings. This number may be underestimated since more studies need to be done in already available and new found ceramics. This is the second time that Iberian writing is found by us in an unexpected location together with the Iberian-Guanche inscriptions of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura (Canary Islands). On the other hand, naviform scripting, usually associated to Iberian rock or stone engraving may have also been found in Veleia. Strict separation, other than in time and space stratification, between Iberian and (South) Tartessian culture and script is doubted.
Category Archives: Iruña-Veleia
Iberian script of Iruña-Veleia
A new study of the Iberian script findings withing the (partly disputed but most likely very real) ostraka graffiti at Iruña-Veleia (Basque-Roman city of Antiquity on which I have written extensively in the past) is freely available online.
Antonio Arnaiz-Villena & Diego Rey, Iberian-Tartessian scripts/graffiti in Iruna-Veleia (Basque Country, North Spain): findings in both Iberia and Canary Islands-Africa. International Journal of Modern Anthropology 2012. Freely accessible → LINK
Source: Ama Ata[es].
Videos of the Iruña-Veleia Congress (I)
As you may recall, the International Congress on Iruña-Veleia took place in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country) earlier this month. The complete written reports can be found at Euskararen Jatorria.
These videos have been published at Iputztar (YouTube user). Some have already been posted in this blog (so I will only include a link) and we can expect that more will be published in the near future (it seems to me that the list is very much incomplete as of now). Most are in Spanish language, with some Basque also, but at least one is in English.
→ Full playlist of the Congress’ videos in sequence (for people with plenty of time).
00 – Sarrera (Introduction) → YouTube link.
03 – Eliseo Gil (archaeologist, former director of Iruña-Veleia digs, accused of falsification by the most surreal linguists’ gang ever, accusations never proven). In Spanish:
04 – Xabier Rentería synthesizes the reports of some of those who claim that the graffiti are false (Julio Núñez, archaeologist, and Joaquín Gorrochategui, linguist), who rejected to go to the congress. In Basque:
;
05 – Idoia Filloy (archaeologist, member of the Iruña-Veleia team, also accused). In Spanish:
06 – Francisco Javier Santos Arévalo (archaeometrist, physicist) on how to date the shards reliably. In Spanish:
07 -Joaquín Baxarias Tibau (archaeologist) on the very revealing bone artifacts of Iruña-Veleia. In Spanish:
The interventions of linguists Luis Silgo Gauche and Antonio Arnaiz Villena are still not available in video.
Special thanks to Ostraka Euskalduna[eu] for keeping me updated on the matter.
See label Iruña-Veleia for background in (mostly) English.
Rodríguez Colmenero on the Iruña-Veleia graffiti (video in Spanish)
The videos of the International Congress on Iruña-Veleia are being gradually released. I recently shared here the conference by Edward C. Harris, and now is time for Antonio Rodríguez Colmenero (renowned Galician archaeologist, historian and epigraphist). Follows video: 45 mins in Spanish language (good quality):
He discusses in some depth, often by contrasting with other Roman era sites, the alphabet, the Christian inscriptions, the errors being product of children education (most of the findings appear to come from a school), the already ongoing Latin→Romance evolution and often also only attributable to mischievous or ignorant misreadings by modern people with limited knowledge but a big mouth (i.e. not errors but in interpretation).
Source: En el Ángulo Oscuro[es].
Edward Harris conference (video)
Edward C. Harris, Director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum is best known for his inception, back in the 1970s, of the Harris matrix, today the standard method for archaeological digs.
Along with a host of other reputed scholars he participated in the International Congress on Iruña-Veleia, which took place on November 24 in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country).
Harris’ conference, which is essentially an introduction to modern stratigraphy, has been now been made available in video (good quality, 40 mins., English):
The specific mentions to Iruña-Veleia are at the end of the video.
See also:
- Iruña-Veleia Congress: papers and synthesis
- Edward Harris on the Iruña-Veleia affaire
- Category: Iruña-Veleia
Iruña-Veleia congress: papers and synthesis
The linguistic-cultural association Euskararen Jatorria (The Origin of the Basque Language) has published the reports presented for the International Congress on Iruña-Veleia that took place in late November in Vitoria-Gasteiz.
All papers have trilingual (Basque, English, Spanish) introductory sections and then each one is in the language chosen by the author. They can all be found HERE.
Among them there is a “conclusions” synthesis (PDF) whose headlines I synthesize here:
- The dig [by Gil, Filloy et al.] was performed correctly
- Chain of evidence has been broken – as the judge has not controlled it
- Iconography and most graffiti are coherent
- Controlled local digs were not performed to contrast with the findings
- The archaeometrical datings now being performed in Madrid should have been the first thing to do
- Graffiti on bone are easy to date [but was not done either]
- It is only logical that Iberian signs are found among the rest
- So far 19 reports have declared the graffiti genuine
- The Advisory Commission did not do anything of what they should have done
Paraphrasing the late linguist Gorka Knörr, the paper concludes that
If Iruña-Veleia would be a house, datings would be the foundations, controlled digs the first floor, auditions the first floor, history the second, philology the third… Therefore when the Advisory Commission “began building the house by the ceiling” and that is why we are now just as the beginning, because the datings required by Eliseo Gil were never performed.
Background:
As you may already know, Iruña-Veleia is a Vasco-Roman city of Antiquity not far from Vitoria-Gasteiz. In 2006 a large number of inscribed graffiti on pottery shards (ostrakas) was found, most of them in ancient Basque and Vulgar Latin.
The finding had the potential of rewriting linguistic and historical understanding of Basque language and also Romances, what apparently scared to death some popes of linguistics led by Gorrochategui and Lakarra, who, by means of smearing, abuse of power and cronyism, managed to get the archaeologists in charge (Gil, Filloy and their company Lurmen) out and put instead the only archaeologist who was ready to play their game Luis Núñez, whose management of the site has consisted essentially into digging wildly with a caterpillar until popular clamor stopped his misgivings (since then he seems to do nothing at, what is surely good considering what he did when he dared to).
Gil and Filloy have been charged with “falsification” and in this trial is where the hopes of truth being revealed stand now. After many years, a sample of the ostrakas have been sent to researchers in Madrid to perform archeometry tests.
See also: category Iruña-Veleia for further details.
Edward Harris on the Iruña-Veleia affaire
Edward C. Harris, Director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum and world-famous among archaeologists for being the inceptor of the Harris matrix, which soon became standard procedure in all serious digs, wrote yesterday at The Royal Gazette on his recent visit to the Basque Country and the Iruña-Veleia affair.
On this one he says the following:
In late November 2012, I was invited to the
Basque Country to speak at a conference on archaeological works at the
Roman town of Iruña-Veleia, a short distance from the city of
Vitoria-Gasteiz, being one of the leading experts in matters of
stratigraphy in archaeology, the science that controls the excavation
and recording of archaeological sites, and the subsequent analyses of
portable heritage from such places. While it would have been easy to
bask in the honour in which the “Harris Matrix” is held in such matters,
at least with the Basques, the purpose of the conference was to review
some of the subjects that have made Iruña-Veleia one of the most
controversial sites in the world.The issue
revolves around classes of artifacts found at the site by an
archaeological team led by Idoia Filloy and Eliseo Gill, objects of
pottery, brick and bone that were reused as writing tablets and
inscribed with words and pictures in later Roman times. The information
contained on the artifacts appears to have conflicted with presently
held views of the origins of the Basque language and other subjects, so
much so that some experts declared them to be fakes, forged perhaps by
the archaeologists who found them. Apparently without proof, academic or
otherwise, the archaeologists have been hung out to dry in the media,
which unfortunately is often the fate of the falsely accused, as one
Lord McAlpine found recently when he was defamed by the BBC, no less,
and ‘twittered’, almost to death.As to
motivation, one cannot ‘follow the money’, as there is, and will likely
always be, a dearth of it in archaeology. A preliminary audit would
suggest that the archaeologists conducted the excavations to modern
standards, particularly in recording, but as artifacts can be moved
without losing their integrity, it is difficult to comment on the
placement of objects after a “dig” has finished.Given
the complexity of the supposedly forged graffitti, all that one can say
at this stage is that if the artifacts are forgeries, that the
perpetrators of such a hoax are geniuses of the first order, but who, as
archaeologists, would want to claim fame on the basis of such
forgeries, when the real thing is usually of a far more abiding
interest?
H/t to Iruña blog.
See also for background: category: Iruña-Veleia in this blog and its ancestor.
Virtual visit to Iruña-Veleia
The Town Hall of Iruña-Oka is the modern heir of the Vasco-Roman town of Veleia, known in medieval times as Iruña: the capital or the city, as happened with other Roman cities: Pompaelo, now Iruñea-Pamplona, Oiasso, now Irun, etc.
As such, and on light of the continuous mismanagement by higher-level institutions (chartered government of Araba, Western Basque autonomous government), seems to have taken the matter of promoting and explaining the site on their own hands.
To that effect, along with an already existing webpage with extensive information (in Spanish language mostly), the Town Hall has created a virtual visit site with panoramic views and reenacting illustrations ··> LINK.
Needless to say that the Town Hall is not just the only institution taking Iruña-Veleia seriously nowadays but also the only one that seems to give official credibility to the finding of the exceptional graffiti (written in Basque, Vulgar Latin and other languages) performed by Eliseo Gil in 2006 and challenged by a powerful mafia of established linguists with enormous influences.
See also:
- Category Iruña-Veleia in this blog.
- Category Iruña-Veleia in my older blog Leherensuge (until Oct 2010).
First International Conference on Iruña-Veleia
The cultural and linguistic organization Euskararen Jatorria (The Future of the Basque Language) has organized the First International Conference on Iruña-Veleia which will have the presence of important international scholars like the “pope” of modern Archeology Edward Harris, among others.
The conference will be on November 24th in Vitoria-Gasteiz, see below for details.
The program so far is just in Basque language, so I will make a synthetic translation here (large sections skipped and some notes and explanations added by me):
Program
Introduction
9:00 Inauguration and introduction
Morning season: archeology, archeometry, paleopathology
09:15 Edward Harris: Iruña-Veleia in the context of the revolution in stratigraphic principles in archaeology
09:55 Antonio Rodriguez Colmenero: Grafitos, textos y diseños de la Veleia romana: la urgencia de una solución (Graffiti, texts and designs from Roman Veleia: urgency of a solution)
10:25 Synthesis of the (2007) report of Julio Núñez (only archaeologist in the official commission and now most controversial Director of the Iruña-Veleia site)
10:45 Coffee break
11:15 Francisco Javier Santos Arévalo: Métodos de datación por isótopos (Dating methods by isotopes)
12:45 Joaquin Baxarias Tibau: Estudio de las marcas antrópicas sobre hueso halladas en el yacimiento romano de Iruña-Veleia (Study on the anthropic marks on bone found in the Roman site of Iruña-Veleia)
12:15 Round table
14:00 Meal
Afternoon season: linguistics and epigraphy
16:30 Luis Silgo Gauche: Las inscripciones de Iruña-Veleia y la estabilidad de la lengua vasca (The inscriptions of Iruña-Veleia and the stability of Basque language)
17:00 Antonio Arnaiz Villena: Las inscripciones íberas en Iruña-Veleia (The Iberian inscriptions in Iruña-Veleia)
17:30 Synthesis of the (2007) reports of Gorrochategui and Lakarra
17:50 Break
18:20 Verbal communications
19:00 Round table
20:00 Closing
Inscription and information
Inscription: irunaveleiaargitu@gmail.com
Inquiries and complementary information: (+34) 688 887 301
Cost: 45 euros (with meal). Without meal: 33 euros. Pay to the following accounts in advance and then email to the address above with your full name:
Kutxabank: 2101-0092-16-0012334272
Euskadiko Kutxa: 3035 -0038-91-0380081747
It is not convenient to inscribe yourself in the last moment because the hall is in a restricted access zone.
How to arrive
The conference will take place in Vitoria-Gasteiz, specifically in the Europa Jauregia (Europe Palace), site in Gasteiz Av. (avenida, etorbidea) no. 83.
If you arrive by car (from the North or East), you should exit the highway at the Foronda Airport, take the Foronda Gate (atea, portal) then, at the roundabout, the short Honduras street (kale, calle) and then you should be at Gasteiz Av. There are no parking taxes (OTA) in that area.
If you arrive in bus from Billbao, they recommend to get down in the second stop, at Adriano VI st.
If you arrive to the bus station you can walk across the old quarter (which is on a hill and has small irregular streets apt to get lost, although not too much) or go around it. The walk should take some 20 minutes however. There are regular bus services from the other Basque capitals, as well as several Spanish or other European cities like Madrid, Zurich, Barcelona, etc. (see here).
Iruña-Veleia scandal: four years later archeometric analysis will finally be made
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| The crust clearly indicates that they are anything but recent |
It is an order by the tribunal, on request of the defense, who have insisted from the beginning that the exceptional graffiti found in Iruña-Veleia, which include images and short texts in both Vulgar Latin and early Basque (plus some other stuff), are genuine and not any hoax.
The archeometric analysis will be performed at the Institute of Cultural Patrimony of Spain, a reputed institution with sufficient capability to perform the much needed analysis. Previously the court had asked two different police corps to perform the analysis but both had to admit that they could not do it. Supporters of the truthfulness of the findings had even offered to pay the analysis from their own pockets, proposing several European laboratories for that purpose.
Meanwhile the influential clique of mostly linguists, led by the infamous Lakarra and Gorrochategui tandem, who claimed that the inscribed shards were false only because they would clash with their own pet theories, have been pretending that no scientific test can prove anything here: only their own self-serving opinions count.
For background on this shameful story of cronyism and pseudoscience inside the Basque academic and political establishment, see category Iruña-Veleia:
- in this blog.
- in my old discontinued blog (Leherensuge).
Some of the shards previously posted in these blogs:
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| Tartessian script in Veleia |
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| NIIV = NEU (I or me in Basque) |
 |
| NIIVK CORDV MM (?) – click to expand |
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| SIINIICA – SOCRATIIS VIRGILIO MISCART (?) |
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| NIIVRII ATA = neure ata (my father in Basque, modernly father=aita) |
Late Basque linguist Txillardegi considered Iruña-Veleia graffiti to be true
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| Txillardegi |
That’s the revelation recently released by another linguist and defender of the authenticity of the graffiti, Juan Martin Elexpuru: that Txillardegi believed them to be true.
José Luis Álvarez Emparantza, best known as Txillardegi, who died in January this year, is considered one of the most influential Basque linguists ever.
According to Elexpuru, he wrote to him a letter in December 2009 in which he stated that he had the Iruña-Veleia graffiti as authentic and that he considered Hector Iglesias’ paper Les Inscriptions de Veleia-Iruñea to be outstanding (bikaina).
Interestingly he considers the inscription Yaveh zutan izana as an archaic form of hika (roughly equivalent to using the pronoun thou), mentioning that Johannes Leizarraga in the 17th century wrote aiz for (modern) haiz (thou art). Hence for Txillardegi this sentence should be read (in modern Basque) as Yaveh zerutan haizena (Yaveh who art in heaven).
The issue of zerutan (modernly would be zeruan, sing., or zeruetan, pl.) he thinks it may be related to dialectal variants like surtan (from su: fire).
In another letter he lamented that he could not, being in his 80s, anymore get involved in this affair, as he would have no doubt have done if he was younger.
Source: Berria[eu].
See also for ample background info: category Iruña-Veleia in this blog and its predecessor.
For what they were... we are 