At the end of the year it is usual to review last year. I want to do something like this with the 4,500 characters offered by ARGIA on Iruña Veleia (hereinafter I-V). From time to time I have inserted several writings and videos into quotation marks to check them online with the search engine.

In January I received the calendar of guided tours to the I-V site. Josetxo Mendia, member of the I-V Martxan group, offers monthly guided tours on the first Sundays and reports on the incidents that occur in the site throughout the year. With guided tours J. M. Elexpuru and Maritxu Goikoetxea started in 2015 and are succeeding.

After the visit in May he sent a terrible news saying that with the help of the excavator was the destruction of a Christ around the walls and sent a video: “What you see today is touching the excavator and fire in Iruña–Veleia.” Video of the full visit in September: “Guided tour by Asturias-Veleia with Monte Josetxo”.

This excavator account brought the rope. In view of this situation, the SOS groups Iruña Veleia and Iruña Veleia Martxan sued the court of Vitoria with the report of an archaeologist. Upon hearing the complaint, the Provincial Council of Álava became strong: “Asturias-Veleia: ‘Conspiracy’, judgment Diputación.”

The court answered four months later: “The judge rejects the complaint. They say the Deputy has done no harm.” Appeal.

In May, Patxi Zabaleta offered an interview to Goiena Telebista to unite Irulegi, Veleia and the Basque. It is worth seeing the full dialogue: “The history of the Basque Country cannot be written without discoveries such as Iruña Veleia.”

In June we included the collection “Bibliografía Provisional Asturias-Veleia” thanks to Goiena. The aim is to collect what had been published but dispersed around I-V and make it accessible for consultation, offering the two existing opinions on I-V and the original language of the documents.

In September, presentation of the book by Mapi Alonso Fourcadena: “Findings in Asturias-Veleia. Hiru ekintza-ordezkaria”. And as a subtitle. ‘Critical review of what happened at the General Meetings of Álava during the 2007-2011 term’. This period was very decisive in the evolution of the I-V; Mapi adapted to the General Meetings of Álava and was able to follow the issue of I-V very closely. Therefore, the book to be taken into account, based on the documents and minutes of the time: “Projection of the promotional video of the book by Mapi Alonso, Eliseo Gil, Idoia Filloy and K. With testimonies from Van den Driessche.”

November. ‘Harris Matrix’ is the excavation method used by I-Van, the most commonly used method in the world today. His inventor, C. Edward Harris went to I-V and accepted the excavation of LURMEN saying it was impossible to falsify graphites: “Edward Harris, on the anniversary of his method, has agreed to Iruña Veleia/Edward Harris on the 50th anniversary of his method.”

In November, the anniversary of the black day of the history of I-V: fifteen years ago, on 19 November, Eliseo Gil, Idoia Filloy and the workers were expelled from the site after fourteen years of excavation at the site. Mapi Alonso has shown in his book that it was an arbitrary decision of the Member, supposedly based on the work of the Scientific and Advisory Committee, but it is not recorded in the Minutes of the Commission.

Various media papers were published on the occasion of the elimination, such as: “15 years after the kidnapping of Iruña–Veleia traces”, “19-11-2008”, “EA, Bildu, PNV: You owe the truth to the people of Iruña–Veleia” and “Asturias-Veleia: The Council of Álava is handling the judgment.”

The video made by the group ‘Snipers’ also stands out: “Familia Feto (Foto de Familia)-2023-Youtube”, uncleaned since 2007 and without intent to clean, about hundreds or thousands of pieces of 59 existing boxes.

December. The excavator continues to work: “The site is being destroyed with impunity.” Please note that Eliseo Gil's team found graves in houses attached against the wall with children's bones. On the other hand, with regard to the plans for I-V, the Member of Parliament for Culture said: ‘Our main goal is to make Iruña Veleia a site school and a practice laboratory for heritage research and conservation.’ And so, entangling everything?

Tomas Elortza Ugarte