Archaeological Findings at Lizarate Pass

This note was published at EiTB:

Remains of a medieval castle at the gates between Gipuzkoa and Alava

Olwen Mears

The historical significance of the ancient doorway between two Basque provinces comes further to light with the discovery an ancient dwelling and inn.

Those responsible for leading excavations into the St Adrian tunnel (between Gipuzkoa and Alava) which started a year ago have been amazed by recent findings.

"This is double what we expected (to find)," said one archaeologist. "Without doubt, what is emerging here is a big surprise."

Remains which have been found inside the tunnel, where today only the old Roman road and an ancient chapel still stand, have lead archaeologists to conclude that there once stool a medieval castle of some magnitude, as well as possibly an inn and a cemetery. All of these are evidence of the importance of the underpass which joins the Basque provinces of Gipuzkoa and Alava.

The Lizarate pass, better known as the San Adrian tunnel, was once the entrance to Gipuzkoa and the Roman road that runs through it united the ancient kingdom of Castille with France.

"It was like the N1 (important highway that runs from Madrid to the Basque town of Irun) of its day ... marketers, princesses,.. everybody traveling between Castille and France would have to have passed through here," explained one of the diggers.

Furthermore, remains have also been found from the Bronze Age, two metres below where the current archway stands, proving that the passageway was previously much wider.

Representatives from the council of Gipuzkoa will continue to encourage the archaeological exploration of the site with the objective of retrieving this historically strategic spot of the Aizkorri Aratz national park.

As one council deputy explained: "Firstly what we want to do is preserve the site and then of course give it the importance that is warrants."

This archaeologist needs some history classes, after the Romans there was no Castille and for hundreds of years there was a Basque kingdom called Navarre between Spain and France. Gipuzkoa and Araba where both provinces of that Basque sovereign state we call Nabarra.

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DNA Research at Aldaieta

This article was published at Innovation Reports:

Ancient DNA: reconstruction of the biological history of Aldaieta necropolis

A research team from the Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology & Animal Physiology in the Faculty of Science and Technology at the Leioa campus of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), and led by Ms Concepción de la Rúa, has reconstructed the history of the evolution of human population and answered questions about history, using DNA extracted from skeleton remains.

Knowing the history of past populations and answering unresolved questions about them is highly interesting, more so when the information is obtained from the extraction of genetic material from historical remains. An example is the necropolis at Aldaieta (Araba) where some of these mysteries about these peoples have been answered – thanks to the study of their DNA.

Aldaieta brings together certain important features which make this site a prime archaeological and historical record and its conservation an important task of restoration and study. In this vein, the Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology & Animal Physiology in the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), has undertaken a study of DNA in the necropolis at Aldaieta (Araba).

The researchers at the UPV/EHU have been studying the genetic material of ancient remains, extracted both from bones and teeth, in order to interpret the biological and social meaning of this necropolis. The study of ancient DNA is a field in which laboratory work is enormous for a number of reasons. On the one hand, in comparison with modern or current DNA, that extracted from the bones and teeth is quite degraded and is in very small quantities. As a consequence, the risk of contamination is high. This is why, at all times the results obtained have to be authenticate and it has to be demonstrated that they are not due to contamination or handling/manipulation, but have genuinely been obtained from the samples.

The research work began with the extraction and subsequent analysis of DNA from the ancient remains (normally by the sequencing of mitochondrial DNA, a molecule inherited maternally) of each individual and in duplicate. Moreover, a third copy of the sample from each individual was sent to another laboratory and. finally, they compare all of them in order to distinguish between what is endogenous from what is the result of handling. Obviously, the results obtained from the same sample/individual have to tally in all the analyses in order to be reliable.

Interpretation of the settlement at Aldaieta

Despite the problems inherent working with ancient DNA, the methodology drawn up for the current work as well as the precautions and criteria of authentication undertaken have enabled reliable and verifiable results of the population buried at Aldaieta to be obtained.

Within the great homogeneity of the mitochondrial lines on the European continent, the genetic substrate of the population buried at Aldaieta falls within the variability of that expressed by current populations on the Cantabrian coast and Atlantic axis, thereby indicating the existence of genic flow between these human groups in ancient times.

Besides the characterisation of the mitochondrial genome, they have carried out the characterisation of the chromosome Y, using techniques focused on ancient DNA, an have shown the existence of family relationships within the necropolis, given that certain mitochondrial lines have a particular distribution, the grouping of individuals belonging to the same line having been discovered at nearby burial sites. Besides, there exists a significant differentiation gender wise, men having qualitatively and quantitatively more important funerary artefacts than women.

It is clear that the genetic analysis of skeleton remains, despite the labour-intensive work involved and the problem of authenticity of the results, has provided an essential contribution in the reconstruction of the biological history of human populations.

Irati Kortabitarte

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Aranzadi Visits Irikaitz

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Aranzadi Society of Sciences visits Palaeolithic site of Irikaitz

Irikaitz is a lower Palaeolithic site full of information about the prehistoric man who used to live there 150,000 years ago. Irikaitz is the most ancient site of the Basque Country alongside Leize-Txiki in Arrasate.

Scientists of the Society of Sciences Aranzadi are working at the Irikaitz site, in the Basque town of Zestoa, a lower Palaeolithic site full of information about the prehistoric man who used to live there over 150,000 years ago.

Palaeontologists discovered that prehistoric men ate hazelnuts and lived in a warmer weather than the current.

Irikaitz is the most ancient site of the Basque Country alongside Leize-Txiki from Arrasate.

Archaeologists are discovering how prehistoric men lived during the lower Palaeolithic, over 150,000 years ago. The area in which the excavation is centred at the time being was apparently used as a workshop by early inhabitants.

These men lived surrounded by hazelnut and oak trees and ate their fruits. No remains of burnt hazelnuts have been found.

Unesco experts will visit the caves of Ekain, Altxerri and Santimamiñe in September to decide if they add them to the World Heritage List.

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The Ekain Caves

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Ekain Caves in Zestoa Gipuzkoa, Basque country

ZESTOA –Gipuzkoa: Ekain caves’ replica will have more than 80,000 visits per year A French company is building a replica that will be placed next to the original at the end of year 2006.

35 years ago two discovered Ekain cave. From that moment on Ekain has turned into a sanctuary for specialists of prehistory. The cave is considered valuable owing to its cave paintings and its excellent maintenance.

Aranzadi Science Society, promoter of Ekain project, apart from preserving this treasure, has promoted the building of a replica of the cave in France, 500 metres away from the original one.

The replica will be open in 2007 and will be visited by 80,000-120,000 people a year, according to estimation of the recently-constituted Ekain Foundation. This association, sponsored by Basque Government, delegation of Gipuzkoa, and city hall of Zestoa, will promote “Ekain berri” project, which apart from the replica, includes Prehistory Basque Museum’s building in Lili Palace, car parking and repairing already existing roads.

Promoting Urola Coast

Up to now, almost four millions and a half have been invested in the initiative and in the following years 10 millions and a half more will be used for the project. The idea is getting a connection between ecology and culture, the same way they want to get it between Menosca project in Zarautz –about roman presence in the area-, Balenciaga Museum in Getaria, Oteiza pelota courts in Azkoitia, and Loiola basilica’s promotion in Azpeitia. Thus, a new offer in tourism, culture and leisure time will be created in Urola coast, with “Ekain berri” as badge project.

Building the artificial cave, erected by architect Txema Balerdi is already finished, and cost two million Euro.

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Roman Site in Euskal Herria

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Knowing the "Roman-Basque" capital town

This settlement, formerly considered as an ‘oppidum’, a fortified military camp, is the most important Roman settlement among the ones found in Álava.

The Roman town of Iruña-Veleia is an archaeological site located in the municipality of Iruña de Oca, between the localities of Trespuentes and Villodas, and ten kilometres from Vitoria-Gasteiz. The experts continue working in this place.

This settlement, formerly considered as an ‘oppidum’, a fortified military camp, is the most important Roman settlement among the ones found in Álava. New findings indicate that this was the main centre of consumption in the Basque Country during the Roman period.

As it was located in the main overland route of the North of the Iberian Peninsula, it played a very important role in the revitalisation of the environment, since it distributed all the goods (oil, wine, salted meats, marble, crockery…) that arrived at there.

Therefore, these are the remains of a town strictly speaking, integrated into a completely Romanised area, whose origins go back to the end of the Bronze Age. During the Iron Age, it experienced a great expansion and the end of the 1st century of our time was its golden age. During that period, they replaced their huts with houses, including rooms around a central courtyard with a water cistern.

The access to the site –covering more than 1,500 years of history- is located at what formerly was the southern gate of the wall. This wall sheltered an urban area of more than 11 hectares but, nowadays, we can only see 500 metres.

Once we get in, leaving the Cardo Maximus to our left, we find several rooms belonging to a big urban residence, opened to a secondary street. Very close to it, we can enjoy impressive mosaics that, at present, are put in their original place. We can see the remains of painting coatings and the mosaic floor –dating from the 3rd century AD-. It also preserves the overflow channel of the water tank.

A bit farther, very near the town’s main street, that is, the Cardo Maximus, we find the remains of a house in which we can see the cellar. At the highest part of the town, we can observe the remains of a big public building that was integrated into the wall as a tower. The wall was built between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, it had a 1.5 kilometre perimeter and very high towers (some points of the wall preserve more than nine metres).

To get an idea of how life was in the old town, a small exhibition of photographs, texts, and drawings has been installed. Some of the pieces found in the excavations are in the Museum of Archaeology of Álava, a visit recommended by the project Iruña-Veleia 3rd Millennium.

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Basque Archeologic Discovery

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Iruña-Veleia

Third-century Basque inscriptions found in archeological site

06/09/2006

As the dailies Diario de Noticias de Álava and Diario de Noticias de Gipuzkoa report today, Basque inscription remains have been discovered in the Basque archaeological site of Iruña-Veleia, in the southern Basque Country.

Archaeologists in the site of Iruña-Veleia have discovered an epigraphic set "among the most important of the Roman world," with a series of 270 inscriptions and drawings from the third century and a representation of a Calvary, "the most ancient known up to this moment."

Furthermore, in the same site, 10 kilometres away from Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque inscriptions have been found, apparently dating back to the third century. This would bring the discovery of the first recorded documents written in Basque eight centuries backwards.

Up to this moment, the most ancient were those found at the San Millán de la Cogolla monastery in La Rioja, from the eleventh century after Christ.

If the ages of these writings were confirmed, that would cause a revolution in the theories of the origins of the Basque language, and will move its birthplace to Alava.

Furthermore, some of the legible writings in Basque refer to Christian themes, which would strengthen the hypothesis that there existed Christian communities in the Basque Country earlier than historians thought.

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Neanderthals Not Our Cousins

I know by now you are thinking, man this crazy individual finally forgot about the Basques, it has been weeks since he mentioned anything about it, well, recess is over, and get this one, from Yahoo News:

We may not be cousins to Neanderthals, after all: study

David Noel

What happened to the Neanderthals?

From a combination of old and new evidence, it appears that at last we have a satisfactory answer to the age-old question of 'What Happened to the Neanderthals?'. If the current reasoning is correct, their descendants are still with us, and we call them the Basques.

This theory therefore simultaneously answers a second age-old question, 'What is the Origin of the Basques'?

Robert J Sawyer has recently published his book "Hominids" [2], a fictional account of an interaction between Sapiens humans and Neanderthals, but drawing on the latest scientific research about Neanderthals.

This research included studies of DNA extracted from bones of Neanderthal remains. The account mentions five months of painstaking work to extract a 379-nucleotide fragment from the control region of the Neanderthal's mitochondrial DNA, followed by use of a polymerase chain reaction to reproduce millions of copies of the recovered DNA.

This was carefully sequenced and then a check made of the corresponding mitochondrial DNA from 1,600 modern humans: Native Canadians, Polynesians. Australians, Africans, Asians, and Europeans. Every one of those 1,600 people had at least 371 nucleotides out of those 379 the same; the maximum deviation was just 8 nucleotides.

But the Neanderthal DNA had an average of only 352 nucleotides in common with the modern specimens; it deviated by 27 nucleotides. It was concluded that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals must have diverged from each other between 550,000 and 690,000 years ago for their DNA to be so different.

In contrast, all modern humans probably shared a common ancestor 150,000 or 200,000 years in the past. It was concluded that Neanderthals were probably a fully separate species from modern humans, not just a subspecies: Homo neanderthalensis, not Homo sapiens neanderthalensis.

Looking now at the evidence for the theory that the Basques are descended principally from Neanderthals, everything suddenly falls into place, and the supposition becomes almost self-evident.

Location: The 'home country' of the Neanderthals is well known to have been western Europe. One source says that they "dominated this area for at least a quarter of a million years". Many of the best Neanderthal specimens have originated from the Iberian Peninsular. The Basque Country, lying on the western side of the Pyrenees and on the border between Spain and France, fits in neatly with this location.

The Basques are well-known to have distinctive body characteristics. Kurlansky says "Ample evidence exists that the Basques are a physically distinct group. There is a Basque type with a long straight nose, thick eyebrows, strong chin, and long earlobes" [1].

Basque skulls tend to be built on a different pattern. In the early 1880s, a researcher reported "Someone gave me a Basque body and I dissected it, and I assert that the head was not built like that of other men" [1].

These qualitative differences are indicative, but quantitative evidence, with presence or absence of features, or items being present in different numbers, has greater weight in deciding whether specimens belong to the same or different species. Powerful quantitative evidence comes from a consideration of blood factors.

Human blood is classified according to various parameters, the most important of which are ABO and Rhesus characteristics. In ABO, blood may contain the 'A' factor (giving A-group blood), the 'B' factor (B-group), both 'A' and 'B' (AB blood), or neither (O blood). The A and B factors act like antibodies, and if blood containing one or both of them is transferred to a person whose blood does not already contain them, adverse reactions occur. Group O blood contains neither antibody and can typically be transferred without reaction to any recipient.

Some 55% of Basques have Group O blood, one of the highest percentages in the world [3].

Even stronger evidence comes from the Rhesus factor, discovered only in 1940. The blood of most humans (and, apparently, all other primates [6]) contains this factor, and is called Rhesus-positive or Rh+ blood. Blood lacking this factor is called Rhesus-negative.

The Basques are well-known to have the highest percentage (around 33%) of Rhesus-negative blood of any human population [2], and so are regarded as the original source of this factor. In the United States, some 15% of the 'European' population are Rh-negative, while the percentage in the 'Asian' and 'Black' population is much less than this.

Possession of Rh-negative blood can be a major disadvantage for a human population. A Rh-negative woman who conceives a Rh-positive child with a Rh-positive man will typically bear her first child without special problems. However, because of intermingling of fluids between mother and foetus, the first pregnancy builds up antibodies to Rh+ blood in the woman which typically attack the blood of her subsequent Rh+ children, causing them to miscarry, be stillborn, or die shortly after birth (infant haemolytic disease [6]). This phenomenon is unknown elsewhere in nature, although it can occur with artificial crosses between species, as in mule production [6].

The scenario so far then is this. Around 600,000 years ago, in southern Europe, a species of man separated off from the ancestral line, and we call this species Homo neanderthalensis, the 'N-people'. The blood of this species contained none of the factors A, B, or Rh.

Much later, possibly around 200,000 years ago in Africa, the main human line had picked up the A, B, and Rh factors (possibly from other primates, the Rhesus factor is named after the Rhesus monkey or macaque), and by then could be classed as Homo sapiens, the 'S-people'.

In competition between related species or races, antibodies in their blood are a powerful genetic advantage for those who possess them when competing against those who don't. History has many examples of European settlers who quite unintentionally won out against native populations because the latter had no antibodies against diseases such as measles which the Europeans brought with them.

In the present scenario, a woman of the N-people (Basque, Rh-) who partnered with a man of the S-people (non-Basque, Rh+) would be likely to bear no more than a single child of the partnership. 'Mixed marriages' in humans are not usually genetically disadvantageous, but in this case they would be. The effect would be a continuing reduction in the N-people population as 'mixed' couples produced only a single child, half the nominal population-maintenance rate.

There are other physical characteristics of humans which are typically associated with Rh-negative blood, but which in the present scenario would be regarded as belonging to the N-people. These include early maturity, large head and eyes, high IQ [6], or an extra vertebra (a 'tail bone' -- called a 'cauda'), lower than normal body temperature, lower than normal blood pressure, and higher mental analytical abilities [5].

Another highly distinguishing feature of the Basques is their language, which is related to no other on earth. According to [3], its ancestor was spoken in western Europe before (possibly long before) the ancestors of all other modern western European languages. This source states that the most strenuous efforts at finding other relatives for Basque have been complete failures.

People have unsuccessfully tried to connect Basque with Berber, Egyptian and other African languages, with Iberian, Pictish, Etruscan, Minoan, Sumerian, the Finno-Ugric languages, the Caucasian languages, the Semitic languages, with almost all the languages of Africa and Asia, living and dead, and even with languages of the Pacific and of North America. Basque absolutely cannot be shown to be related to any other language at all [3].

The structure of the Basque language is also very distinctive, it is said to contain only nouns, verbs, and suffixes. The language strongly defines the Basque people [8]. In the Basque Language, called Euskera, there is no word for Basque. The only word defining a member of the group is Euskaldun, or Euskera speaker. The land is called Euskal Herria -- the land of Euskera speakers.

In the present scenario, Basque is the descendant of a spoken language originated by the N-people, independently of (and possibly at a much earlier time than) the languages of the S-people.

In an interesting study, Philip Lieberman [7] has looked at the mouth cavities and other presumed speech production features of Neanderthal fossils. According to his evaluation, Neanderthal people would have had difficulty in pronouncing the vowel 'ee'. This vowel is missing from normal Basque pronunciation [9].

If the present scenario is valid, then the Basques, mostly stemming from the N-people, would of course be somewhat distinct genetically. In [3] the question is asked, "Are the Basques genetically different from other Europeans"? , with the answer, "Apparently, yes. Recently the geneticist Luiga Luca Cavalli-Sforza has completed a gene map of the peoples of Europe, and he finds the Basques to be strikingly different from their neighbours. The genetic boundary between Basques and non-Basques is very sharp on the Spanish side. On the French side, the boundary is more diffuse: it shades off gradually toward the Garonne in the north. These findings are entirely in agreement with what we know of the history of the Basque language".

The social relationships of the Basques with the rest of the world have been quite unusual for a distinctive human group. While always protecting their unique and separate identity, they have also always striven to interact, cooperate with, and sometimes lead the rest of the world.

Kurlansky points out the remarkable contributions the Basques have made to world history [1]. They were the explorers who connected Europe to the other continents in the Age of Exploration, in trade they were among the first capitalists, experimenting with tariff-free international trade and monopoly breaking, and in the industrial revolution they became leading shipbuilders, steelmakers, and manufacturers.

At the same time, the Basques have always been regarded as 'different', and so inevitably subjected to discriminatory treatment and (sometimes savage) persecution, as in the Franco years [3]. In my book 'Matrix Thinking' [4] I have examined the underlying forces driving interactions between human groups, using the term SIOS, and the way groups recognize and act on differences between those inside and outside their own group.

Genetic differences are one of the most powerful recognition signals in this process, and so it cannot be unexpected that the Basques have suffered in this way. Nowadays such events are regarded in a very negative light, as pointlessly discriminatory. In the Basque case there is some rare justification for this -- a non-Basque man pairing with a Basque women might have expected to have only one child of the marriage, before recent medical procedures got round the Rhesus negative problem.

Language differences are also very powerful SIOS recognition signals, and it is interesting to look at the Basque case. The Basque language, while retaining its own distinct structure, has heavily borrowed words from other languages. Other languages have borrowed very few words from Basque, regarded as an 'inferior' language, and those that have come over often have had an uncomplimentary sense. As an example, Spanish has borrowed 'izquierdo' (meaning left, as in left-handed) from Basque, and words meaning 'left' often have a negative connotation (in English, 'gauche' and 'sinister' are from the French and Latin for 'left').

It has been suggested [5] that the Basques were the original inhabitants of Europe, and the architects of Stonehenge and similar megalithic structures. These constructions apparently used a unique system of measurement based on the number 7 (instead of 10, 12, or 60), representing a separate origin of a mathematical system.

To round out the present scenario, it is suggested that the present world population is a complex hybrid mixture of at least two human species, one classed as Homo neanderthalensis, the other (or others --if the A and B blood factors originated from separate species) as Homo sapiens. The genes from these species are now so intermixed (as in cultivated roses) as to make the species name indeterminate.

Further genetic analysis, concentrating on the Basques, may reveal more on this. Research should cover both nuclear DNA, controlling sexually-inherited traits such as blood groups, and mitochondrial DNA, passed on unchanged from mother to child. For reasons given above, the N-people mitochondrial DNA may have now been bred out completely from modern world populations.

Perhaps the Human Genome project needs extension to cover the possible mix of origins. It would also be of interest to check whether any known Neanderthal skeletons had an extra vertebra.

There is an extensive website covering recorded Neanderthal fossils [10], and the information there generally supports the suggestion that the species have merged, with later N-people more similar to the S-people than older specimens.

REFERENCES

[1] Mark Kurlansky. The Basque History of the World. Penguin Books,
New York, 2001.

[2] Robert J. Sawyer. Hominids. Tor Books, 2002.

[3] FAQs About Basque and the Basques.
http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/larryt/basque.faqs.html.

[4] David Noel. Matrix Thinking. BFC Press, 1997. Chapter 104, Syston
Boundaries and SIOS. Also at:
http://www.aoi.com.au/matrix/Mat04.html.

[5] The Rh-negative Factor and 'Reptilian Traits'.
http://www.reptilianagenda.com/research/r110199a.html.

[6] Blood of the
Gods.http://www.geocities.com/ask_lady_lee/rhneg.html.

[7] Philip Lieberman. Eve Spoke: Human Language and Human Evolution.
W W Norton, 1998.

[8] What is Basque? httpp://www.clan-
blackstar.com/research/basque.html.

[9] Basque Pronunciation.
http://www.eirelink.com/alanking/collq1.htm#Pronunciation.

[10] Homo neanderthalensis.
http://www.modernhumanorigins.com/neanderthalensis.html

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