- In the excavation area of Navarre where the hand appeared with ancient words in Basque, archaeologists have continued to work this year and have found more remains of a town in the Iron Age, a dwelling with stone stairs, which had never been found in the Western Pyrenees.
The archaeologists of the Society of Sciences Aranzadi have completed this year’s campaign and valuation in the town of the Iron Age of Irulegi. The prestige given to him by the discovery of a piece of hand-shaped bronze bearing words in Basque of yesteryear has caused this campaign to arouse great expectation.
The team led by Mattin Aiestaran is pleased with the results. A third house has fully surfaced and realized that it has a stone stairway to access the house, a structure that has never been found in the Western Pyrenees: "It surprises the conservation of this seven-step ladder to this day," the officials explain.
They have worked in the eastern area of the main street, where they have also found signs that the village was attacked about 2,000 years ago, as there are burned areas. They have found many weapons and thousands of fragments of ceramics, animal bones and household utensils.
A first study of this material reveals that the Basques of the time had contacts with the Romans and that this relationship was more complex than expected.
Over 2,000 visitors
The 2023 campaign has been the longest so far, lasted three months, and 100 volunteers have worked. In total, over 2,000 visitors have received them during this period.
In addition, the City Hall of Aranguren has conditioned access to Mount Irulegi, has enabled parking and has placed signs to "visit the site in a more sustainable and organized way".