My first book was Los Hijos del Edén. I started writing it in 1998 and ended up publishing it (in Ediciones B, whose collection now belongs to Penguin Spain) in 2010. In 2001 I sent a first version to the English geneticist Stephen Oppenheimer. He published his work The Origin of the British in 2007 (published in London by Robinson).

In Los Hijos del Edén I tried to show that mythology is a very useful tool for understanding a part of our past that has been preserved through oral tradition, and that has not been recorded in written form, since its origins are very remote, prior to the invention of writing. I gave as an example the Iberian origin of a large part of the population of the British Isles, and its cultural and genetic relationship with its distant neighbor to the South. Stephen Oppenheimer picked up on this idea (I don't know if he was inspired by the manuscript I sent him or not) and developed it in his own book, published in 2007 (three years before I published mine). Whatever the case, it is clear that this is an example of how Oral History, and mythology, can be a good starting point for the study of Antiquity.

Recently, a YouTube video presents Oppenheimer's hypothesis in a concise and clear way. I recommend watching it:

The relationship between the British, Irish and Spanish

https://youtu.be/YjdxECzpRuw?si=qdZSxFwjyLMoM1z6

Below I present the essence of Oppenheimer's hypothesis, quoting his book verbatim, and then I include two passages from Los Hijos del Edén, where I develop some ideas that years later the British scholar would analyze- undoubtedly, in a much more accurate and complete way. I will begin by quoting some essential points from The Origin of the British, by Stephen Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer's thesis

Stephen Oppenheimer, in his book The Origin of the British (page 12), alludes to Tacitus, when he describes the Silures of Wales as "Iberian": "The dark complexion of the Silures, their usually curly hair, and the fact that Spain is the opposite shore to them, are an evidence that Iberians of a former date crossed over and occupied these parts" [of the British Isles].

This same author assures that the Roman Tacitus could be right, since genetic studies support an Iberian origin for a good part of the population in the British Isles. This interrelation has very distant origins. Thus he says (page 132): "As to who and what were the British ancestors, we can say they were largely Ice Age hunting families from Spain, Portugal and the South of France." This author identifies the "Basque haplotype" in the British Isles, which dates back to times after the so-called Younger Dryas, the last period of glaciation (pages 165 onwards, and page 196).

On page 5 of the aforementioned book (The Origin of the British) he summarizes the essence of his thesis: "One observation shines brigth from the genetics. The bulk of informative male gene markers among the so-called Atlantic Celts are derived from down in south-west Europe, best represented by people of the Basque country. What is more, they share this Atlantic coastal link with certain dated expansions of mtDNA [mitochondrial DNA] gene groups, representing each of the main, archeologically dated, putative colonization events of the western British Isles. One might expect the original Mesolithic hunter-gatherer colonists of the Atlantic coast, over 10,000 years ago, to have derived from the Ice Age refuges of the western Mediterranean: Spain, south-west France and the Basque Country. And that was indeed the case: shared genetic elements, both in the British Isles and Iberia, did include such Mesolithic mtDNA found gene lines originating in the Basque region".

Oppenheimer speculates that the language originally spoken in the British Isles may have been a derivative of Basque (page 151): "Sub-structural linguistic evidence within both these modern branches of Indo-European [Celtic and Germanic] suggests the oldest language of the British Isles may have been more like Basque". Below we will see that there may indeed be some relationship between Celtic languages and Basque.

I will now go on to present two passages from my book Los Hijos del Edén that refer to the aspects I have referred to above. The notes are below.

The Origin of the British (Page 455 and following of Los Hijos del Edén)

And, of course, we cannot forget that the British islands, such as H-IBERNIA, or H-EBRIDAS, could have the same origin [the toponym IBAR, also existing in the eastern Mediterranean, as the Ebrus river, or in the Caucasus, as Iberia]. According to A. Cherpillod, HIBERNIA (Ireland) comes from the Celtic IVERIU, as we see related to the root IBAR; Iwerriadd (Ireland) was one of the two wives of the Welsh god Llyr; and furthermore, Ptolemy called the Hebrides islands EDOUDAI, as is evident, related to the root EDE.

According to Donald A. Mackenzie, in his work Ancient Man in Britain ¹, The people who inhabit the Hebrides, as well as the Silures of Wales, would derive from ancient mining prospectors, perhaps of Iberian origin ². In fact, in Great Britain it is common to say that this population, with Mediterranean characteristics (short stature and dark complexion), would be descendants of shipwrecked crews in the area after the disaster of the Spanish Armada. And there are those who say that they would form part of the so-called "ten lost tribes of Israel" ³.

However, Celtic mythology indicates that this population would come from the FIR BOLG -see below- who occupied the area in prehistoric times. What evidence do we have of the common origin of peoples as far apart as the inhabitants of the Hebrides, the Iberians of Spain and Portugal, the Hebrews, or the Iberians of the Caucasus?

The first proof of "kinship" is found in the Hebrew root IBRI (or EBER), so similar to the Basque IBAR (later I will refer to the possible link between the Iberian and Basque languages). This would indicate that the Iberians, like the rest of the inhabitants of the Mare Nostrum, could have spoken the same language: the Pelasgian language, which perhaps the Hebrews themselves used before settling in Sumeria, or before their arrival in Canaan (around the 12th century BC).

Could this proto-language be the Nostratic language I mentioned earlier? Or a more recent derivation, such as the Hamito-Semitic mentioned above? We may never know. But we cannot rule out that it was spoken from Anatolia to the northern tip of the British Isles (the Hebrides).

If we assume, as the authors of the article “The original language of prehistoric Europeans” do, ⁴, that Basque and Iberian are two related languages (as their mutual identification with the toponym “Ibar” indicates), we can reach the conclusion that: “peoples related to the Basques once inhabited almost all of Europe.” Furthermore, “their genotype is found, to a surprising degree, in the whole of the European population.” They state categorically: “We are not exaggerating if we say that we Europeans are all Basques.” This would explain why many pre-Indo-European toponyms (such as Ibar, Aran, etc.) come from Basque. In short: throughout Europe, and perhaps in a good part of the Mediterranean area, a pre-Indo-European language related to Basque was spoken (perhaps the Pelasgian language?).

As D.A. MacKenzie says in his Crete and Prehellenic Myths and Legends: "Periodic waves of population, moving westward and eastward, entered Europe through the Straits of Gibraltar, and Palestine and Asia Minor by the coastal route. In time they occupied southern, central, and western Europe, entering the British Isles. They probably reached Ireland via Scotland... Neolithic tombs in Europe and Africa are constructed in a similar manner, and the great majority of the skeletons they contain are remarkable for their typological uniformity." ⁵. This quote seems to support the hypothesis of the existence of a single cultural environment, before the arrival of the Indo-Europeans, in the Mediterranean and Atlantic area. This entire area would probably have spoken a single language (Pelasgian?) ⁶. But where would such a flow of Neolithic population come from?

Jorge Alonso, in his article "Our dark origins" ⁷ makes a suggestive proposal: different Mediterranean peoples (among which we would find Iberians, Etruscans and Sardinians) would come from an unusually fertile Sahara 10,000 years ago (coinciding with the climatic phase known as the "Holocene Optimum"). When this immense plain began its inexorable desiccation, the aforementioned Neolithic population - which had been using pottery since ancient times - crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and populated the Mediterranean and Atlantic strip of Europe, giving rise to the megalithic culture. According to the author, genetic evidence (a study carried out in 1996 by Antonio Arnaiz) would support this hypothesis: Basques, Madrilenians, Sardinians, Tuscans (Tuscany is the epicentre of the Etruscan country) and modern Algerian Berbers would share a common trunk ⁸.

Thus, I have no doubt that the Iberians, as well as other peoples of the Mediterranean and Atlantic areas, were related to the Hebrews. Perhaps this would explain why, as D.A. Mackenzi explains ⁹,The inhabitants of the Hebrides have preserved a taboo against eating pork since ancient times.

I will give another reason, perhaps not decisive, but significant: the similarity between some toponymic roots of both cultural spheres.

I will begin with the ancient country of K'art'li, Georgian Iberia. K'art'li has the same root as the Phoenician (or Aramaic) KARTH. From this root, which means "city", we have the toponyms CARTHAGE, or CARTEIA (Algeciras). This allusion to KARTH (city) in the Caucasus should not surprise us: Strabo states around 10 AD, quoting Theophanes, that the Iberians of the Caucasus were very civilized, with abundant cities and markets. ¹⁰.

Another indication of a possible relationship between the Iberian language - and perhaps Basque - and Hebrew is found in the toponym BETIS (the Baites of Apiano, present-day Guadalquivir River). As seems evident, BETIS has the root BET ("house"), typically Semitic (we find it in Betania, Béthel, etc.) ¹¹.

So here we have two clues that suggest that the Iberians - both Hispanic and Caucasian - could have spoken a language with Semitic endings. But the most conclusive proof of the remote relationship between Iberians, Pelasgians and Hebrews must be sought in green Eire. The Lebor Gabala Erren (Book of the Invasions of Ireland) speaks of five occupations of this land from the most remote antiquity: the first is attributed to PARTHOLON, son of SERA, and would be destroyed by a plague; the second to the people of NEMED, who after being subjugated by the evil FOMORIANS abandon Ireland; the third to the FIR BOLG, descendants of SEMION; the fourth to the TUATHA DE DANANN, who come from some Greek islands, and whose chief (Nuada) is called AREGETLAMH (their capital was TARA); and the fifth to the MIL SPANIAE, among whom we have EBER FINN and ARANON.

Note the presence of the following patronymics or toponyms: SERA, SEMION, EBER, TARA and ARANON, homophonous with SARA, SEM, HÉBER, TARÉ and ARÁN, respectively, in Josephus' version. As is evident, all are from the lineage of SEM. ¹².

According to the medieval Irish chronicle, the MIL SPANIAE (Celts, or Gaels) descend from GOMER, while the rest of the invasions (PARTHOLON, NEMED, FIR BOLG and TUATHA DE DANANN) would be descendants of MAGOG. As we can see, both lineages have their origin in the area of Scythia, and both would belong to the descendants of JAPETH.

Everything suggests that the first three invasions came from the Iberian Peninsula, and were not led by Indo-Europeans, but by Semites. Proof of this is that the Celts (Nordic race) called the Iberians of Ireland (shorter in stature, with dark hair and eyes, and an elongated skull) "people of the night" (they, of course, considered themselves the "children of light"), a description that would be close to that of a Semitic people.

The fourth invasion - that of the TUATHA DE DANANN - presents a peculiarity: this people did not come from the Iberian Peninsula, but from the mythical Southern Islands of the World. The fifth (that of the MIL SPANIAE) would have left from Brigantia (today's A Coruña), where Breogán heard of Inisfail (literally, the "Island of destiny": Ireland). According to legend, this mythical people would have left from Scythia, and their stops before reaching Spain would be Egypt, Crete and Sicily. The MIL SPANIAE are called Gaels because their ancestor is Gaedhal Glas.

Surprisingly, both archaeological and linguistic evidence supports, quite faithfully, this mythical narrative. If we review the prehistory of the British Isles, we will see how they were inhabited by a Neolithic population from 4500 BC. ¹³. A little later, megaliths began to appear: elongated burial mounds like those found in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. ¹⁴.

However, by 3000 BC, the land became depopulated (the plague after the PARTHOLON period?). Several centuries later a new population (the FIR BOLG?) occupied Britain. The elongated barrows of old were replaced by round barrows. We are at the beginning of the spread of the Bell Beaker Culture. ¹⁵.

The reference to the Southern Islands of the World (the starting point of the TUATHA DE DANANN) makes one think of the islands of the Aegean. To which people could the Lebor Gabala Erren actually refer? I think that this would be the biblical DODANIM: in the Bible (Genesis 10:4) it is identified with "those of Rhodes"; that is why we should read RODANIM instead of DODANIM. Could it be a population from the Aegean island of Rhodes that would occupy Ireland after defeating the FIR BOLG? And if so, when would this have happened?

There is an interpretation that identifies the DANANN with the Achaeans. According to this, a group of the so-called "peoples of the sea" would reach the British Isles at some point in the 12th century BC. Not in vain, in the Egyptian temple of Medinet Habu we see images of warriors wearing horned helmets, like those usually used by the Celts. These images represent the defeat of the "sea peoples" at the hands of the troops of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses III.¹⁶.

Finally, the Celtic invasion of Ireland from the Iberian Peninsula - the fifth invasion mentioned in the Lebor Gabala Erren -, already in the Iron Age, is perfectly possible: some traditions and rites are almost identical in Ireland and Galicia. For example, in this region of Northern Spain it is believed that, at night, the souls of the dead dwell in the streets: a estadea; in Ireland we have ann eistedd (the gathering of the dead). In Galicia there is the tradition of Breogán, and in Ireland that of Bregon... And finally, in Galicia there are numerous towns with the particle MIL (warrior; although according to others it could also mean "great"): Ardemil, Belmil, Antemil... Galicia: Birthplace of the MIL SPANIAE?

Thus, we observe that each of the invasions that appear in the mythical book known as Lebor Gabala Erren seems to have a historical correspondence - if not demonstrable, then perfectly possible. But there is more: the comparison between the Basque and Celtic languages suggests that if any language has clear homologies with Basque - apart from the Aquitanian of south-west France - it is the Celtic of the European Atlantic coast. Let us look at several examples:

BASQUE versus CELTIC

Mendi (mountain) versus Mynydd (Wales), meneth (Cornwall)

Maite (dear) versus Maith ("good" in Ireland)

Hartz (bear) versus Art (bear in Ireland)

Harri (rock, stone) versus Carrac (rock, big stone in Ireland)

Adar (horn) versus Adarc (horn in Ireland)

Andere (woman) versus Ainder (woman in Ireland)

Note that the first three words could have Indo-European roots. However, there is an interesting aspect: the Basque hartz (bear) is similar to the Greek arktos, not to the Latin ursus. That is to say: either the Basque people borrowed this word from the Celts who lived in the Iberian Peninsula, or, as in the case of ibar (possibly related to eber), the Basques acquired it from a hypothetical Pelasgian proto-language.

Such similarities between languages of populations so far away and isolated from each other (Basque and Irish) lead us to think that such homologies - if they are not the product of chance, and I do not believe that is the case - could be the consequence of direct contact between the Iberian populations - if they spoke a language related to present-day Basque - and the Celtic people on the European Atlantic coast. Proof of such contact could be found in the close similarity between the toponyms IBERIA (Spain and Portugal) and IVERIU (Ireland).

We have previously referred to the Silures people of Wales and Ireland, alluding to the possible Iberian origin of a good part of the population of the British Isles. The historian G.B.M. Trevelyan (Ramón Sainero, page 198) categorically states: “There is probably some ‘Iberian’ blood running through the veins of every Englishman today, more so in the Scottish, and mostly in the Welsh and Irish.” This is so true that the author himself believes that it was the Iberians – or some other Mediterranean people – who built the megalithic complex of Stonehenge (Ibid, page 212). In this regard, a team from Oxford University, led by professor of genetics Bryan Sykes (La Vanguardia, September 21, 2006) maintains that “the British and the Irish are, through their Celtic ancestors, the descendants of a tribe of Iberian fishermen who crossed the English Channel 6,000 years ago.” DNA analysis would reveal that the Celts have almost the same genetic fingerprint as the ancient inhabitants of the coastal regions of Spain, who would have emigrated to the north between 4000 and 5000 BC. This would mean that “the majority of the people of the British territory come from the Spanish.” In short, the Irish Celtic myth is not wrong: the people of the British Isles emigrated from Spain in several waves, between 4000 BC and shortly before Roman rule.

We have two more clues in the Celtic characters -cited above- INDECH and ARGETLÁMH. The first (INDECH, king of the FOMORIANS) is very reminiscent of the prefix IND so often used by the Iberians (INDIGETES, INDÍBIL...) The second (ARGETLÁMH, literally "silver arm") to the king of Tartessos called ARGANTONIO (silver man); and let us remember that this king could be a later one than a hypothetical invasion carried out by one of the "Sea Peoples": the Tursha. Would ARGETLÁMH be evidence that the Rhodians, or some other people of the Eastern Mediterranean, had reached the British Isles around the 12th century BC? ¹⁷

In short: either a single language was spoken in that vast area, or the whole area had been occupied by a population of Iberian origin: perhaps, the one that gave rise to the megalithism of Western Europe. Once again we come across the ongoing debate about whether Iberian and Basque are the same language - with the logical differences attributable to the passage of time - or whether, in their case, they only shared some words due to proximity and borrowings between the two.

On this subject, there are opinions for all tastes. For the moment, I am not going to enter into this discussion. I will only say that a simple and easy way to settle this controversy would be to think that both Basque and Iberian would derive from the primitive language spoken by a supposed Pelasgian people before the Indo-European invasions in Europe.

Apart from the linguistic and toponymic homologies mentioned above, we have abundant evidence of the possible existence of a Pelasgian proto-language on a continental scale at least:

• The root BRITA is found throughout Europe: in Celtic Brigit, in Galician Brigantia (A Coruña), in Portuguese Braganza, in French Briançon, in the homonymous Britannia, in the Cretan goddess Britomartis, etc.

• The same can be said of the root ILI: Iliberris in Spain (Elvira, Granada), Illyria in the Balkans (later Yugoslavia), Ilion (ancient Troy)...

• The suffix SSOS is found throughout the Mediterranean area: from Tartessos, to Cnossos, passing through Parnassos.

What conclusions can we draw from reading the Lebor Gabala Erren?:

First, to what extent mythology can be adjusted to historical facts, once these are considered in sufficient detail and care. The sudden depopulation of the British Isles after the first generation of Neolithic farmers and peasants (around 3000 BC) could be proof that the plague that devastated the mythical Partholon population was something more than a fable.

Second, that the Celtic mythology of the British Isles repeats the patronymics that would have originated in Southeast Asia: SEMION, SERA, IBATH-EBER, TARA... And as we see, they all have Semitic connotations.

Third, that there must have been real contact between peoples from the Iberian Peninsula and those who inhabited the British Isles before the arrival of the Celts.

Finally, and as the most important conclusion, the Irish Celts trace their people back to IBATH and EBER, two versions - the first older than the second - of the same lineage. And I believe that this tradition would not be Celtic, but Iberian. This would show the kinship of the Iberians of Ireland - as well as those of the Iberian Peninsula - with the Pelasgians and Hebrews, the other branches of the great Eberite family.

In that case, EBER would be the common ancestor of the peoples of the Mediterranean and Atlantic coast of the European continent. Would we be talking about a Eurasian Pelasgic culture (the driving force of megalithism in this area)? The hypothesis is more than reasonable.

I insist again: the first three invasions of Ireland would not have an Indo-European character - although they have been attributed to peoples descended from MAGOG - but rather a Pelasgic one. The reference to MAGOG as the beginning of his lineage would allude to the remote origin of the Eberite people (in the Eurasian steppes).

Traditionally, we tend to think of prehistoric peoples as backward and barbaric, and to consider that for long periods there had been absolute and total immobility. But History shows that even in the most remote past there have been long-distance contacts, even at sea. Very little is known about Antiquity, but the more we learn about it, the more it surprises us. Let us not be carried away by our own prejudices.

The Basque language: a European protolanguage? (Page 494 and following of Los Hijos del Edén)

I think the best way to approach this hypothetical "mother tongue" would be to find a language that had remained isolated over time, if possible since the Paleolithic period. And in this respect, the most notable case could be Basque. For this reason, in search of the "mother tongue" that I mentioned above, I will talk a little about the Basque language.

It is often said that Basque is a unique and isolated case, a singular language that, with the available data, seems only remotely related to other known languages. As Mark Kurlansky states: "It is an orphan language that does not even belong to the Indo-European family of languages."¹⁸. I believe that this consideration is born from an attempt to turn the Basque people into a kind of "fossil" - or relic - of the Stone Age. Not in vain, the Basques are very proud that the term that refers to axe (aitzkora) contains a root that means "stone" (aitz).¹⁹.

Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza is one of those who think that the Basques are the descendants of the artists who painted Altamira and Lascaux, some 15,000 years ago: "It is very likely that the Basques are direct descendants of the Paleolithic (and their Mesolithic successors) who lived in southwestern France and northern Spain before the Neolithic arrived." ²⁰. But even though they mixed - to a certain extent - with the latter, they managed to preserve their language, which was the language of the Cro-Magnons: "I find the hypothesis that the Basque language comes from the languages spoken by the first modern Cro-Magnon humans (35,000 or 40,000 years ago), when they first occupied the southeastern part of France and the northeastern part of Spain, very plausible, and that the great cave artists in the region spoke the language derived from the first Europeans, from which modern Basque comes." ²¹.

Mark Kurlansky adds to this reasoning that the Basques would share the physical characteristics of the Cro-Magnons, unlike the Spanish and the French: they are larger, have larger chests, as well as broad shoulders, and are more robust. The Cro-Magnons, according to some, would be present in certain racial types that can still be found in the Cantabrian Sea, the Basque Country, the French Dordogne, the Canary Islands (reminiscent of the Guanche race), among the Andalusians, the Berbers and the Irish. ²².

Genetics seems to provide evidence in favour of the alleged ancestral isolation of the Basque people: the Rh- (negative) form of the AB0 gene is characteristic of Europe; in this respect, the highest percentage is found in the Basques. According to Cavalli, its subsequent decline - to a level in any case below 50% - would be attributable to mixing with a population from the Near East (with Rh+). Once again, the Basque people would have become a "Paleolithic island" in the Neolithic environment that surrounded them. ²³.

There is a reason to think that the Basques may not have always lived in the same place: their language seems to be a more recent version of an even older language. Basque is said to derive from a language that originated in western Gaul (Aquitanian), which only later - after the collapse of the Roman Empire - was established in the area where it is spoken today. ²⁴. This is contradicted, however, by the evidence that the Romans already referred to a people who occupied the area between Navarre and part of Aragon (the Vascones), who did not speak the same language as their neighbours.

Whatever the case, on one point there seems to be general agreement: the Basques would be the oldest population on the European continent. For this reason alone, it would be logical to assume that their language would be the closest to the primitive language spoken in Europe before the arrival of the Indo-European invasions. In fact, according to experts, the Basque language would be the last surviving pre-Indo-European language in Europe. ²⁵.

However, Basque is by no means an "orphan" language. Note: arktos (bear, in Greek) and artz (bear, in Basque); arko (light, in Sanskrit), and argi (light, in Basque); gora (mountain, in Slavic), and gora (height, in Basque).

There has long been a bitter dispute about the affiliation between Basque and the Iberian language. Ramón Menéndez y Pidal said in this regard: "When we talk about Basque, whether we like it or not, we are dealing with something more general than Basque, and that is Iberian." ²⁶. In favour of this relationship we have the following arguments:

1. The existence of Iberian toponyms, spread throughout the peninsula, which undoubtedly resemble Basque names: Iliberris (Granada, which would be equivalent to the Basque hiri-berri: new city); Calagurris (Calahorra, which seems to contain the term gorri: red); Egara (Terrassa; from garai: high?)...

2. The existence of homophonous words: egiar versus egin (to do); salir (in silver coins) versus zilar (silver); saltu versus zaldi (horse); Gizon (proper name) versus gizon (man); andere (referring to people) versus andere (woman); nescato versus neska (girl); Arse(tar) (from Arse, Sagunto), versus "Paris(tar)" (from Paris)... A fragment written on a vase from Liria has even been deciphered, depicting a naval battle, in which one can read cutua teistea (in Basque gudu deitzea: that is, "called to battle").

3. Ancient Basque and Iberian seem to have the same syllabic structure. And not only that: there is no sound "f", nor probably the sound "p", nor can the silent+liquid sequence (bri, cla...) be written, so it is believed that these sounds did not exist in the Iberian language. These phonetic features are common to the Basque language (the current patxaran derives from basaran; foru derives from the Latin forum).

Against the possible Iberian-Basque homology there is an equally powerful argument: in addition to the aforementioned Liria document, it is stated that not a single Iberian inscription has been deciphered from the Basque language. This would indicate that there is a chasm between the two languages. It has been thought that the possible similarities between the Basque and Iberian languages may be due to borrowings between the two, attributable to reasons of proximity.

Recently, as I have pointed out above, the author Jorge Alonso García, in the magazine Selecciones de Misterios de la Arqueología (number 3), claims that he has managed to decipher the Iberian language using the Basque language. To do so he would have used what would be the Rosetta stone of said language of Antiquity: a bilingual inscription with the legend Are.Tace.Cen, accompanied by the Latin Heic.Est.Sit (here lies buried). It turns out that in Basque aratze cen means "here lies the deceased" (eratzan: to lie down + zen: deceased).

In view of this, it seems clear that there is more than just "coincidences" between the Basque language and the Iberian language. But I am interested in highlighting the following: I think it is reasonable to think that both Basque and Iberian, as well as other languages of the Eurasian continent, would have shared vocabulary coming from a common root: the language that I would call "Pelasgian". This would explain not only their homologies with the Celtic and Iberian languages, but also with the Greek language. See the following examples:

BASQUE versus GREEK

Hartz (bear) versus Arktos (bear)

Apar (foam) versus Aphros (foam)

Zitu (harvest fruit) versus Sitos (wheat)

Andere [or andre] (woman) versus Andras (male)

In the mythological field, the coincidences are also notable: for example, in the Basque Country, the belief in "lamias" (in Basque, lamiak) is common, malevolent women who enchant and kill young people. Among the Greeks and Romans, these fantastic beings would be demon women who devoured children. But this tradition has an even more remote origin: the goddess Lamastu of Babylonian mythology, who, as in the classical world, represented all the dangers that threaten childhood. Among the pagan Basques, Mari (or Mairu) was a goddess - or female genius - who lived in caves, and who, like the Celtic Morrigan, took on various forms.

Other Indo-European languages share homologies with Greek with the Basque language: among them Sanskrit, Gothic, Hittite... As can be seen, all extinct or extremely ancient languages. This suggests that Basque shared a common linguistic root with ancient Indo-European, that there were borrowings between both languages, or simply that it had maintained a relationship of proximity with a language that gave vocabulary to both Basque and primitive Indo-European. Or, who knows, perhaps Basque is itself a relic of the "mother tongue" of all Eurasian languages, whatever it may be.

The answer to this mystery can be found in the etymology of the word "euskaldún", a term derived from eguzki (sun). In the words of Magdalena Isaeva ²⁷: “The Basques consider themselves representatives of a country that is located where the sun rises, in the East.” I do not know if this interpretation is correct, but if it is true, it would link this toponym to others such as Japan or Maghreb (East and West, respectively), which attest to a “journey”, a “route”, from a certain place, presumably located in the East.

Notes:

1 Page 118.

 

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