The discovery of the Hand of Irulegi has sent ripples through the academic community. The hand is a 2000 year old bronze artefact excavated at an archeological site in Navarre. Initially unearthed in June 2021 it wasn’t until the object was being cleaned in January 2022 that researcher discovered the writing on the back . The inscription is only 40 characters in length, but those letters nevertheless have the potential to rewrite the history of the Basque language.

Prior to the discovery of the Hand of Irulegi, scholars believed that the Vascones, an ancient tribe that lived in the region now known as the Basque Country, did not use a written script. It was thought that the Vascones were an oral society, with the introduction of writing to the region being brought by the Romans, who conquered the area in the 1st century BCE. As a result, scholars assumed that any written records found in the region were the result of Roman influence, and that the Vascones themselves did not possess a written script.
It had previously thought that the Vascones were a pre-literate people, using only a handful of symbols in the process of minting coins. The discovery of the Hand of Irulegi has now challenged this assumption, providing evidence that the Vascones did, in fact, use written language.
The characters on the hand are written in a script that diverges from the previously known Northeastern Iberian system. While rooted in this tradition, the Hand of Irulegi script has been adapted to accommodate sounds not present in the original Iberian signary, which is evident in the presence of symbols also found on coins minted across the Basque territory.

The meaning of the script remains obscure, but researchers have made progress in identifying certain words and patterns within it. One of the most promising conclusions is the word “eŕaukon”, which appears to be a verbal form due to its structure and position within the inscription. The form of “eŕaukon” bears resemblance to the past tense of the Basque auxiliary verb “zeraukon”, used in eastern dialects. The word may be derived from the causative form of “edun”, meaning “to make” or “to give”, which was once used as an autonomous verb but has since fallen out of use.
The scarcity of written texts from this period makes each new discovery all the more exciting, as even 40 characters provide significant insight into the culture and language of the region. However, even with the addition of the Hand of Irulegi, the overall amount of written material remains limited. Therefore, the deciphering of this script is a crucial steps towards understanding the linguistic and cultural evolution of the region. Further discoveries are needed to parse the inscription and to flesh out understanding of Paleohispanic writing.