Les traces les plus anciennes de la présence humaine en Pays Basque remontent à quelques 200 000 ans.
Il sembre d'après certains anthropologues, linguistes et archéologues, que la langue basque était déjà utilisée au début de la Protohistoire.

http://www.bascoweb.com/decouverte/siteprehistorique.htm

Das Land der Basken, eine atlantische Insel in Europa

Als im Jahr 8500 v. Chr. ein Asteroid die Erde traf, infolge der Einschlagsenergie die Erde ins Taumeln geriet , die Meere ueber das Land hinbrausten und alles menschliche und tierische an das Land gebundene Leben in den Flachlaendern vernichteten, kurz als die Sintflut ueber die Erde hereinbrach, ueberstand auf dem Lande die Katastrophe nur das, was in hohen Gebirgen oder auf durch hohe Gebirge geschuetzten Hochebenen lebte. Aber auch hier gab es infolge der anschliessenden verheerenden Regenfaelle, der Jahrzehnte oder Jahrhunderte andauernden Klimaverschlechterung und der dadurch ausgeloesten Verknappung an Nahrungsmitteln noch erhebliche Ausfaelle, sodass im atlantischen Raum, der durch die Katastrophe am haertesten getroffen wurde, am Ende nur das uebrig blieb, was lange Zeit in natuerlichen oder kuenstlich geschaffenen Hoehlen in einem klimatisch relativ guenstig gelegenem Gebiet lebte.

Zu diesen Gebieten zaehlten auch die fruchtbaren Hochlaender und die Gebirge der iberischen Halbinsel. Von den ueberlebenden Menschen in diesem Bereich, die durch ihre Einbindung in das alte atlantische Reich "der Goetter und Riesen", das in der Sintflut untergegangen war, noch einen grossen Teil des Wissens aus dieser Zeit mitbekommen hatten, ging dann die Gruendung des neuen atlantischen Reiches, das spaeter von Platon beschrieben wurde, aus. Wie bereits beschrieben, dehnte es sich in der Folgezeit an den Kuesten des Atlantiks, dem baltischen Bereich und im westlichen Mittelmeer aus.

Im Norden der iberischen Halbinsel gibt es ein Gebiet, das besonders guenstige Bedingungen fuer das Ueberleben von Menschen in durch die Natur oder durch den Menschen verursachten Katastrophen bietet. Dieses Land wird nach Westen durch die ueber 2000 m Hoehe ansteigenden Gipfel des kantabrischen Gebirges geschuetzt, hat selbst im Norden stark gebirgigen Charakter, der ein Eindringen feindlicher Menschen stark erschwert und oeffnet sich nach Sueden in fruchtbaren Hochebenen, die jede Art von Landwirtschaft ermoeglichen. Fuer ausreichende Regenfaelle sorgt der nahe gelegene Atlantik im Zusammenwirken mit den Gebirgsketten . Sie speisen den das Gebiet nach Sueden begenzenden Fluss, der heute den Namen Ebro fuehrt, das ganze Jahr ueber mit ausreichend Wasser.

Wegen dieser Vorzuege wurde dieses Gebiet seit der Zeit des Cro Magnon Menschen immer und durchgehend von der gleichen Art Menschen bewohnt. Sie ueberlebten hier die zwei grossen Naturkatastrophen, welche die atlantischen Reiche untergehen liessen, wanderten nach der zweiten Katastrophe nicht nach Osten hin aus, sondern blieben, wie auch andere kleinere Gruppen in verschiedenen beguenstigten Gebieten, in ihrem Land. Gegen die spaeter einwandernden keltischen und germanischen Volksscharen verteidigten sie es mit allen Kraeften und grosser Zaehigkeit und retteten so sowohl ihre Gesetze, ihre Traditionen und ihre Sprache bis in die heutige Zeit. Dies, obwohl die noerdlich und suedlich angrenzenden Nationalstaaten Frankreich und Spanien ihnen dieses nationale und kulturelle wie sprachliche Ueberleben seit den Anfaengen des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts mit den Mitteln des modernen Staates und neuerdings auch mit den Mitteln der modernen Kommunikationsgesellschaft wie Rundfunk und Fernsehen ausserordentlich erschweren.

Die Rede ist vom Baskenland oder Euskadi, wie es in der Landessprache genannt wird. Es ist heute ein kleines Land zwischen den westlichen Pyrenaeen und den Ufern des Golfes von Bizkaia. Es hat noch eine Flaeche von ca 20700 Quadratkilometern, von denen der kleinere Teil noerdlich der Pyrenaeen im heutigen Frankreich, der groessere suedlich der Pyrenaeen im heutigen Spanien liegt. Es ist in sieben historische Provinzen gegliedert, die sich in ihrer Sprache Araba, Behenafarroa, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Lapurdi, Nafaaroa und Zuberoa nennen. Es hat etwa 2 900 000 Einwohner, von denen 230 000 im Bereich des heutigen Frankreich leben. Die Basken stellen eine ethnische Einheit mit eigener Sprache und Kultur dar, die sich deutlich von den noerdlichen und suedlichen Nachbarn abhebt. Ihre Sprache ist das Euskera, der Einwohner heisst Euskaldun.- Euskera dun : der, welcher Euskera spricht.-

Wilhelm von Humboldt, der im 19. Jahrhundert das Baskenland bereiste, beschreibt den Basken wie folgt : Gross, schlank, trotzdem kraeftig, schwarze Haare, starke Augenbrauen und feingeschnittene Gesichtszuege. Auffallende Charaktereigenschaften sind nach ihm Hoeflichkeit und Mut. Die Haeuser sind sauber und die Kleidung ordentlich, nur die Sprache ist fremdartig, anders als alle bekannten Sprachen und auch mit erheblichen fremdsprachlichen Erfahrungen nicht zu verstehen. Dies wird auch dem heutigen Besucher des Baskenlandes sofort klar, wenn er die Hinweisschilder in der Landessprache an den Strassen zu verstehen sucht. Es wimmelt in dieser Sprache von starken Konsonanten wie K , Z ,R und P , oft noch dazu in Kombination miteinander . Dazwischen befinden sich als besonders haeufige Vokale das "i" und das "eu" sowie das "ei" und die Kombination "oa". Ein kleines Beispiel davon soll im Folgenden gegeben werden. Es handelt sich dabei um die Strophe eines Liedes, welches das Wiedererwachen von Euskera als geschriebene Sprache besingt. :

Lengoajetan ohi intzan
estimatze gutitan
Orai aldiz hik behar duk
Ohoria orotan.
Heuskara, habil mundu guzira !

was besagt : Unter den anderen Sprachen
hat man dich wenig gewuerdigt;
jetzt dagegen wirst du
unter allen geehrt.
Euskera, geh durch die ganze Welt !

Viele Wissenschaftler haben versucht, die Herkunft dieser Sprache zu klaeren. Bis heute ist aber niemand zu einem befriedigenden Ergebnis gekommen. Unbestritten ist aber, dass diese Sprache im Baskenland seit der Vorgeschichte gesprochen wird und von baskischen Sprachwissenschaftlern wird behauptet, dass sie bis 6000 vor Christus eindeutig fuer das Baskenland belegt ist, das heisst, dass sie hier bereits zur Zeit des atlantischen Reiches und der Megalithkultur gesprochen wurde. Fuer die heutige Wissenschaft ist auch die Herkunft der Basken noch immer ein Raetsel, dessen Loesungsversuche aber immerhin zu zwei Theorien gefuehrt haben, die sich , wie sich zeigen wird , ohne grosse Probleme zusammenfassen lassen, wenn man auch in der Wissenschaft die Existenz eines atlantischen Reiches der Fruehgeschichte voraussetzt.

Die erste und am weitesten verbreitete Theorie besagt :
Die Basken stammen vom urspruenglichen Cro Magnon Menschen ab. Sie konnten sich in ihrer einsamen Lage ungestoert entwickeln und unvermischt erhalten, wobei ihre urspruengliche Kultur und Sprache ebenfalls erhalten blieb. Es gibt also keinen wesentlichen Unterschied zwischen den Menschen der Cro Magnon Rasse und den Basken. Diese Kontinuitaet kann mit Daten der Craniometrie belegt werden, sie findet gemeinsame Merkmale bei Cro Magnon Schaedeln und den Schaedeln der Basken. Dabei wird besonders auf die Kurzkoepfigkeit von Cro Magnon Menschen und Basken hingewiesen.

Die zweite Theorie stellt die Beweiskraft der Craniometrie in Frage, weil die Kurzkoepfigkeit seit dem Neolithikum ( also der Ausbreitungszeit des zweiten atlantischen Reiches ) auch in anderen Teilen Europas vorkommt und dazu im Baskenland nicht die einzige vorkommende Schaedelform ist. Sie legt deshalb die serologischen Eigenschaften des Blutes als Unterscheidungsmerkmal fest und kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass eine Gleichheit zwischen dem Baskenland, dem aquitanischen Umkreis und anderen Randvoelkern Europas besteht. In ihren Bevoelkerungen herrschen die Blutgruppe 0 und der Rhesusfaktor negativ vor. Es wird daraus der Schluss gezogen, dass die Basken , wie auch andere europaeische Randvoelker, zu dem vorindogermanischen Volk der "Liguren" gehoerten, die Westeuropa im Neolithikum besetzten. Bei den Randvoelkern ging die Sprache in der Auseinandersetzungen mit anderen Voelkern verloren, bei den Basken konnte sie sich auf Grund der abgeschlossenen Lage erhalten.

Ersetzt man in beiden Theorien die Begriffe "Cro Magnon Rasse" und "Liguren" durch "Atlanter " und betrachtet dazu noch die in diesem Buch beschriebene Geschichte der Ausbreitung und des Untergangs des atlantischen Reiches, dann stimmen beide Theorien ueberein. Damit ist nach den bisher von der Wissenschaft angewendeten Untersuchungsmethoden bewiesen, dass es sich bei den Basken um die direkten und nahezu unvermischten Nachfahren der Atlanter des Neolithikums und moeglicherweise sogar des Mesolithikums handelt. Das gleiche gilt damit auch fuer ihre Sprache und ihre Kultur. Wir haben also in den Basken und in der baskischen Kultur und Sprache einen Faden, der uns zur Kultur und zum Wesen der Atlanter zurueckfuehrt.

Damit gewinnen die in der baskischen Kultur erhaltenen Mythen und Legenden sowie die praehistorischen Spuren, die sich im Leben der baskischen Bauern und Hirten wiederfinden, eine ganz andere Bedeutung. Es handelt sich nicht nur um die Vergangenheit eines kleinen Bergvolkes , sondern um die Vergangenheit des gesamten westlichen Kulturraumes um nicht zu sagen, um einen Teil der Vergangenheit der gesamten Menschheit. Untermauert wird diese Feststellung noch durch Beobachtungen der Anthropologen. So stellte Dr. I. Barandiaran in seinem 1969 gehaltenen Vortrag "Ueber die Herkunft der Basken" fest , dass man ueberrascht wird von der Anzahl der Spuren aus den aeltesten Zeiten die man in der Mythologie der baskischen Hirten und Bauern entdeckt.

" Bemerkenswert ist das Ueberleben von Mythen und Ueberlieferungen mit Hinweisen auf sagenhafte Heldengestalten, die in denselben Hoehlen wohnen, die schon die Menschen aus dem aelteren Palaeolithikum vor 15.000 oder 20.000 Jahren zum Wohnen oder fuer ihre kuenstlerischen Wandmalereien benutzten. Das heisst, dass die gleichen Gestalten , die das Pyrenaeenvolk in der Ren-Zeit schuf, heute noch lebendig sind und auf die heutige baskische Mythologie einwirken. Die Welt von Gestalten und Kulten ist heute noch dieselbe wie damals."

Diese Verbundenheit mit der Vergangenheit zeigte sich auch in anderen Bereichen des Lebens. Bis zum Anfang des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts stand in den baskischen Kuechen der Herd noch in der Mitte des Raumes bzw. es befand sich dort das Feuerloch, genau so, wie man es aus den Hoehlen des Palaeolithikums kennt. Die baskischen Hirten verwendeten Gefaesse aus Holz oder Horn und zum Kochen der Milch in ihnen erhitzten sie Steine, die"esnearriak" oder "txukunarriak" genannt werden. Nach dem Erhitzen wurden sie in die Milch gelegt, die darauf sofort zu kochen anfing. Die Uebereinstimmung des heutigen Weidegebiets mit dem Fundgebiet von Dolmengraebern zeigt, dass auch die atlantische Tradition der Weidewirtschaft bis in die heutige Zeit unveraendert weitergefuehrt wird. Interessant sind auch die Reste eines Beilkultes. Man glaubt noch heute, dass ein Beil entsteht, wenn ein Blitz in die Erde faehrt. Aus diesem Grunde wird das Beil auch als ein wirksames Mittel gegen Gewitter und Blitzschlag angesehen. Man nennt es "tximistarris" (Blitzgestein). Beil und Hacke werden mit zusammengesetzten Woertern bezeichnet, in denen der Begriff "aitz"=Stein enthalten ist. "Aitzkora" ist das Beil, "aitzur" die Hacke.

Im Lande lebten mehrere baskische Staemme, die zur Zeit der roemischen Besetzung Iberiens "gens" genannt wurden. Ihre Oberhaeupter bildeten den Tribalrat (Stammesrat). Reste dieser Raete blieben bis ins Mittelalter erhalten. Das Erbe wurde mutterrechtlich uebertragen und die Gueter wurden kollektiv genutzt. Jeder Stamm hatte einen eigenen Dialekt. Die Stammesverbaende spiegelten sich spaeter in den Ritterguetern der Feudalzeit wider. Die Roemer bevorzugten bei ihrer Ansiedlung die suedlichen fruchtbaren Landesteile. Die uebrigen Gebiete wurden mit gepflasterten Strassen erschlossen . Einige hier bereits seit atlantischer Zeit existierende Bergwerke wurden genutzt. Auch einige Stadtgruendungen gehen auf die Roemer zurueck wie Baiona (Bayonne) und Pamplona, das von Pompeius gegruendet wurde. Im uebrigen gab es eine friedliche Koexistenz mit den Roemern, die Basken lebten in den Bergen ungestoert ihr Leben und im fruchtbaren Sueden fuehrten die Roemer die Latifundienwirtschaft ein. Lateinische Lehnwoerter kennzeichnen von den Roemern uebernommenen technischen Fortschritt in der Landwirtschaft.

Das aenderte sich, als im 5.ten Jahrhundert nach Christus die Westgoten in das Land eindrangen. Sie interessierten sich ebenfall vorallem fuer die fruchtbaren Ebenen im Sueden und im Zentrum und versuchten die Basken aus diesen Gebieten zu vertreiben. Da die Basken ihr Land nicht aufgeben wollten, fuehrte dies zu staendigen kriegerischen Auseinandersetzungen, in deren Verlauf die baskischen Staemme sich notgedrungen zu einem Volk zusammenschlossen. Auch von Norden wurden sie jetzt durch die einwandernden Franken bedraengt und als im 8. Jahrhundert auch noch die Araber ins Land einfielen, hatten sie gegen drei Voelker zu kaempfen. Ein besonders in die Geschichte eingegangenes Ereignis aus diesen Auseinandersetzungen ist der Kampf gegen die Truppen Karls des Grossen, die 778 n. Chr. in der Schlucht von Roncesvalles von den Basken teilweise vernichtend geschlagen wurden, was den Franken die Lust auf weitere Abenteuer in dem suedlich der Pyrenaeen gelegenen Raum fuer eine lange Zeit nahm.

Auf Grund der staendigen Auseinandersetzungen mit den Nachbarn aenderten sich sowohl die Gesellschafts- wie auch die Wirtschaftsstruktur des Landes . Die Bedeutung des Kriegswesens nahm zu und in dessen Folge die Bedeutung des kriegfuehrenden Mannes und seines Anfuehrers. Die mutterrechtliche Struktur wurde aufgegeben und durch die Vorherrschaft des Mannes ersetzt . Aus den Fuehrern im Krieges bildeten sich Herren , denen im wesentlichen Grund und Boden gehoerte und Knechte, die ihn im Friedensfall bearbeiteten und im Kriegsfall die Gefolgschaft des Herren bildeten. Um den vorhandenen Boden besser zu nutzen, ging man, soweit es die Bodenstruktur erlaubte, von der extensiven Weidewirtschaft auf den intensiveren Ackerbau ueber. Diese gesellschaftlichen Veraenderungen sind auch an anderen Stellen des atlantischen Siedlungsgebiets belegt.

Im 7. Jahrhundert bildete sich an der Nordseite der Pyrenaeen ein Herzogtum von Vasconia, das sich nach der Eroberung durch Karl den Grossen in staendigem Wechsel zwischen Untertaenigkeit und Unabhaengigkeit von den Franken befand. Im Sueden gab es im 9. Jahrhundert das Koenigreich von Pamplona und 842 erschien hier der Koenig Eneko Aritza, der aus einer Dynastie der Pyrenaeen kam . Seinen Nachfolgern gelang es dann, die von den Arabern eroberten Gebiete zurueckzugewinnen und das erste Koenigreich von Navarra zu gruenden. Der Koenig musste sich aber bei seiner Ausrufung durch seine Untertanen verpflichten, sie nach ihren Rechten und Sonderrechten zu behandeln.

Es gab also hier, wie in den atlantischen Koenigreichen des vorderen Orients, so zeitweise bei den Hethitern, den Medern und im Babylon der Kassitenzeit, eine Art von konstititioneller Monarchie, zwar nicht nach geschriebenem aber doch nach ueberliefertem und praktiziertem Recht. Die Entscheidungen des Koenigs mussten sich den "fueros" unterordnen. Entsprachen die Anordnungen des Koenigs nicht den "fueros" so wurden sie zwar respektiert, aber nicht durchgefuehrt. Die Volksvertretung, genannt "cortes" konnte darueberhinaus Gesetze ausser Kraft setzen, die vom Koenig erlassen worden waren.

Ab dem 12. Jahrhundert gingen dann die Regionen verschiedene Wege. Die noerdlich der Pyrenaeen gelegenen Gebiete wurden in die Auseinandersetzungen zwischen England und Frankreich um den Besitz von Aquitanien hineingezogen und wurden bis zum 15. Jahrhundert von England und dann von Frankreich beherrscht. Die suedlichen verbanden sich zu unterschiedlichen Zeiten und aus verschiedenen Gruenden mit dem Koenigreich Kastilien, wobei die Koenige sich weiterhin verpflichteten die "fueros" des Baskenlandes zu achten.

Bei diesen "fueros" handelt es sich um die Gesetze nach denen die Gebiete der Basken seit uralten Zeiten regiert wurden. Sie waren geschichtlich ueberkommene Gesetze der einzelnen Regionen. Damit stellen sie einen Teil der aus der atlantischen Zeit ueberkommenen Tradition dar und sind deshalb besonders interessant, weil sie zeigen, wie in atlantischer Zeit das Volk seine politische Ordnung fand. Sie bestanden anfaenglich aus Sitten und Gebraeuchen, nach denen sich das Volk richtete und nach denen sich auch die jeweils herrschenden Regierungen orientieren mussten. Aus diesem Grunde wurde es schliesslich notwendig, sie schriftlich zu fixieren. Es erschienen in den einzelnen baskischen Regionen Sammlungen dieser Gesetze, die man dann mit dem Namen "Fuero" bezeichnete. Im Jahr 1237 erschienen zuerst die allgemeinen Fueros von Nafarroa, denen 1520 die von Zuberoa und 1526 die von Bizkaia folgten.

In ihrer Art und nach ihrer Herkunft aus der Zeit Tausende von Jahren vor Christi Geburt, stellen sie die Sammlung der aeltesten auf europaeischen Boden entstandenen Gesetze dar und sind ein Ausdruck der Souveraenitaet des Volkes, das aus langer Tradition und Erfahrung weiss, wie das politische Zusammenleben in Uebereinstimmung mit dem Volkscharakter und seinen Beduerfnissen am besten geregelt werden kann. Der Fuero von Navarra sagt dazu eindeutig :

Die Gesetze existierten zuerst und erst danach die Koenige
und deshalb haben sich auch die Koenige nach den Gesetzen zu richten.

In diesem Selbstbewusstsein und in der konsequenten Verteidigung dieser Rechtsauffassung bis zum offenen oder verdeckten Kampf bis in die heutige Zeit hinein, beweisen die Basken einmal mehr, dass sie voll in der atlantischen Tradition stehen. Wenn auch das Bewusstsein vielleicht verlorengegangen ist, das es noch bei den alten atlantischen Voelkern gab, naemlich dass diese Gesetze ihnen einst von den "Goettern" gegeben wurden und dass sie deshalb unantastbar sind, besteht doch im ganzen Volk die feste Ueberzeugung, dass es sich bei den Gesetzen um eine hoehere Ordnung handelt, der sich ausnahmslos alle, selbst die jeweils Herrschenden, unterzuordnen haben.

Dass bei den Basken dieses Bewusstsein um den goettlichen Ursprung der Gesetze nur noch unbewusst vorhanden ist, kann auch daran seine Ursache haben, dass die Basken, als ein vorwiegend in schwer zugaenglichen Gebirgsregionen lebendes Randvolk des atlantischen Reiches, selbst nicht ueber einen ausreichend dauerhaft organisierten Priesterstand verfuegten und die Gesetzespflege deshalb vorwiegend im Volk selbst verankert war. Wie die Geschichte in diesem Fall beweist, ist dies aber offenbar nicht die schlechteste Art, anerkannte Gesetze ueber Jahrtausende zu bewahren.

Aufgrund dieser Fueros hatte des Baskenland eigene und autonome Regierungsinstitutionen. In Navarra waren es die "cortes" des Koenigreiches, die bis 1851 gueltig waren. In den anderen baskischen Regionen bestanden sie in den "juntas generales"- den Regierungsausschuessen. Sie wurden von den Buergern direkt oder ueber die Stadtraete indirekt gewaehlt und hatten die Aufgabe Gesetze zu entwerfen und den Haushalt und die Steuern zu bestimmen. Sie waehlten auch die Abgeordnetenversammlung - Diputacion - welche die exekutive Gewalt ausuebte. Die Gesetze des Koenigs von Kastilien , der in einem Teil dieser Zeit der Oberherr war oder auch auch der franzoesichen Krone, zu der das Baskenland eine Zeitlang gehoerte, wurden nicht befolgt, wenn die Juntas Generales sie nicht akzeptierten. Sie hatten dann den sogenannten "pase foral" nicht bestanden. Der kastilische Koenig hatte zu dieser Zeit nur einen Corregidor ohne Kompetenzen in der Legislative. Die Fueros waren in dieser Zeit noch so maechtig, dass derjenige, welcher sie zu uebergehen versuchte, hingerichtet werden konnte.

Besonders wichtige Fueros bestanden darin, dass der Koenig das Baskenland nicht mit Steuern belasten durfte und sich mit Stiftungen zufrieden geben musste, die ihm die Juntas Generales bewilligten und dass er die Basken nicht zwingen durfte, im Heer des kastilischen Koenigs zu dienen. Dieses Heer oder Teile davon durften auch nur mit den Einschraenkungen durch das Land marschieren, die von den Deputationen angeordnet worden waren. Das Recht zum Einziehen von Steuern wurde dann vom 16. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert der Grund fuer die staendigen Angriffe der kastilischen Krone gegen die Fueros. Sie wurden als unzulaessige Privilegien der Basken bezeichnet und ihre Abschaffung immer wieder gefordert. In den kriegerischen Auseinandersetzungen zwischen Frankreich und Spanien in Folge der franzoesischen Revolution und der darauf folgenden innenpolitischen Auseinandersetzungen in Spanien, die zur Verfassung von Cadiz von 1812 fuehrten, die auch uneingeschraenkt fuer das Baskenland gelten sollte und damit die Fueros voruebergehend ausser Kraft setzte, geriet die Eigenstaendigkeit des Baskenlandes mehr und mehr in Bedraengnis.

Die drei Karlistenkriege von 1833, April 1872 und Dezember 1872, der bis 1876 dauerte, fand die Basken auf der Seite der Verlierer, die zugesagt hatten, ihre Fueros zu respektieren . Der Verlust des ersten Krieges fuehrte schon 1839 zum Verlust der juristischen und legislativen Gewalt. Es wurde ein einziges richterliches System eingefuehrt und ebenso die Wehrpflicht. Doch die baskischen Regionen gaben nicht auf. Die Deputationen von Araba, Gipuzkoa und Biskaia erhoben Einwaende gegen die Veraenderungen an den Fueros. In Nafarroa handelte 1841 eine liberale Deputation ein Gesetz mit der Zentralregierung aus, das weitere Veraenderungen an den Fueros von der Zustimmung der Basken abhaengig machte. Nach den verlorenen Karlistenkriegen 1876 erliess dann die Regierung von Madrid ein Gesetz, das die Fueros in allen baskischen Regionen ausser in Navarra abschaffte, wo das 1841 vereinbarte Gesetz weiterhin gueltig blieb.

Ab 1877 wurden dann die Foraldeputationen durch die Provinzdeputationen wie in den uebrigen spanischen Provinzen ersetzt. Regiert wurden sie durch einen Gouverneur, der die Mitglieder der Provinzdeputation ernannte. Damit waren auch die letzten Reste von demokratischer Mitwirkung der Basken an der Gesetzgebung und der Steuerhoheit beseitigt. 1878 folgten Wirtschaftsabkommen in denen die Steuern fuer die Deputationen festgelegt wurden. Dieser Zustand hielt an bis 1936. Doch der Gedanke einer eigenstaendigen baskischen Nation war nicht gestorben, sondern hatte in den Karlistenkriegen und ihren Opfern eher an Bedeutung gewonnen. Der Kampf und das Ringen um die Eigenstaendigkeit verlagerte sich jedoch mehr auf die geistige Ebene.

Ihr markantester Verfechter war lange Zeit Sabino Arana, der als Sohn eines Karlisten 1865 in Bilbao geboren wurde und anfaenglich selbst Karlist war. Er studierte die Fueros, baskische Geschichte und Kultur und kam zu der Ueberzeugung, dass es sich bei den Basken um eine eigenstaendige Nation und sogar Rasse handelte, die sich am deutlichsten in den baskischen Namen manifestierte. Er schuf die baskische Flagge, die baskische Hymne und auch den Namen Euskadi, der heute bereits Allgemeingut geworden ist. 1893 gab er eine Zeitschrift heraus und gruendete 1895 eine politische Organisation.

Beide wurden verboten und Arana gefangengenommen. Aber seine gegruendete Organisation, die Eusko Alderdi Jeltzalea (PNV) war bereits so kraeftig, dass sie auch nach dem Tod ihres Gruenders im Jahr 1902 ohne ihn weiter bestehen konnte. Ihr Motto war : "Gott und die Fueros". Ihr Ziel : ein baskischer Bundesstaat. Ihre Heimat hatte sie im baskischen Kleinbuergertum und richtete sich gegen die Herrschaft der spanischen Oligarchie.

Auf Anregung dieser inzwischen zur Partei gewordenen Organisation wurde 1911 eine Gewerkschaft mit klassenueberschreitendem Charakter gegruendet die " Solidaritaet der baskischen Arbeiter " genannt wurde und in der Folgezeit die Entwicklung der Partei sehr foerderte. Sie nannte sich EAJ (PNV) und verbreitete sich von Bizkaia auch nach Gipuzkoa und Araba. Von 1923 bis 1929 waren unter der Militaerdiktatur von General Primo de Ribera alle Parteien verboten. Mit der Einfuehrung der Republik 1931 belebten sich wieder die Hoffnungen auf eine baskische Eigenstaendigkeit, in der die EAJ aber eine schwierige Situation hatte. Ihre traditionelle baskische (atlantische) Einstellung liess sie die Kirche und die Republik befuerworten. Das trennte sie einerseits von Sozialisten und Kommunisten und andererseits von Karlisten und Monarchisten, die eine Monarchie fuer Spanien anstrebten.

Darauf war es dann zurueckzufuehren, dass im Juni 1932 das Autonomiestatut fuer die baskischen Provinzen in Navarra mit Mehrheit abgelehnt wurde, waehrend die uebrigen drei Provinzen ihm zustimmten. Trotzdem wurde Ende 1935 das Projekt eines baskischen Statuts noch in den spanischen Cortes verhandelt.

Mit dem Wahlsieg der Volksfront im Februar 1936 endete die kurze Zeit der Republik in Spanien durch den Putsch der Rechten und den anschliessenden moerderischen Buergerkrieg. Er wurde auf Seiten der rechten Putschisten ab Juli 1936 von General Franco gegen die gewaehlte republikanische Regierung gefuehrt . Da die Regierung die Hilfe der Basken brauchte, unterschrieb sie im Oktober das Statut. Sofort bildete sich eine baskische Regierung, an der ausser den Nationalisten auch die linken Kraefte beteiligt waren.

Und wieder hatten die Basken, um ihre nationale Eigenstaendigkeit schnell zu erreichen, die Seite der Verlierer gewaehlt. Die Repression durch die rechten Kraefte war entsprechend stark. Baskischer Nationalist zu sein reichte aus, um auf einem Seitenstreifen der Strasse erschossen zu werden . Bereits 1937 waren etwa 180 000 Basken ins Exil geflohen und mindestens 10 000 sassen in den Gefaengnissen. Auch der national eingestellte baskische Klerus wurde schwer getroffen: 16 Priester wurden erschossen, 278 kamen ins Gefaengnis und 1300 wurden verbannt. Als Strafe fuer die "verraeterischen Provinzen" wurden die Wirtschaftsabkommen abgeschafft, die den letzten spaerlichen Rest der Fueros dargestellt hatten.

Nach dem Ende des zweiten Weltkrieges, der von den demokratischen Kraeften des Westens gewonnen wurde, schoepften die Basken neue Hoffnungen, die sich aber als truegerisch erwiesen. Im Gegenteil wurden jetzt alle nationalen baskischen Regungen nach dem Aufbau eines modernen Repressionsstaates durch die Frankisten unterdrueckt. Die baskische Sprache wird verboten , ebenso alle baskischen Symbole. Die vier Provinzen Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Araba und Nafarroa werden geteilt und in allen Verwaltungsbereichen getrennt. Die neueingefuehrte senkrechte Organisation der Gewerkschaften macht auch die Arbeiter machtlos. Papst Pius XII unterstuetzt den totalitaeren Staat indem er getrennte Dioezesen errichtet. Die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika helfen Franco durch wirtschaftliche Unterstuetzung und 1955 wird Francos Repressionsstaat in die Vereinten Nationen aufgenommen.

Der baskische Nationalismus muss tatenlos zusehen. Jede politische Arbeit wird gnadenlos verfolgt. Doch aus Repression entsteht Aggression. 1956 entsteht aus der zur Untaetigkeit verdammten Jugend der EAJ (PNV) eine Bewegung, die 1959 zur ETA (Euskadi ta askatasuna) wird. Sie lehnt aus der Erfahrung mit dem spanischen Staatskatholizismus jede Konfessionsgebundenheit ab und vertritt die Ansicht, dass die Gewalt , die der Frankismus ausuebt , nur durch Gegengewalt beantwortet werden kann. Dadurch geraet sie in Konflikt mit der Mutterpartei EAJ (PNV) die weiterhin Gewalt als Mittel der Politik ablehnt.

Im Gruendungsjahr 1959 folgten die ersten Taten, die wenig Aufmerksamkeit erregten, und 1960 folgten dann die ersten Verhaftungen. Im Maerz erliess der Frankostaat ein Dekret gegen militaerische Rebellion, das gegen die gerichtet war, die an Aktionen beteiligt waren, bei denen Waffengewalt angewendet wurde. 1961 wurden Sprengkoerper in oeffentlichen Lokalen gelegt und der Versuch gemacht einen Zug von Kriegsteilnehmern, die das Jahresgedaechtnis von Francos Putsch feierten, zu sprengen. Es fanden die ersten Polizeirazzien statt, etwa 100 Leute wurden festgenommen und gefoltert. Die ersten langen Gefaengnisstrafen - bis zu 20 Jahren - wurden verhaengt. Die Fuehrer der ETA flohen ins Exil.

Aber auch der baskische Klerus wandte sich gegen die Ungerechtigkeiten des Regimes und setzte sich fuer die nationale Freiheit ein. Die bisher gute Zusammenarbeit des Franco Regimes mit der katholischen Kirche bekam die ersten Risse, die sich nach dem Tode Pius XII noch vertieften. Die Befreiungskaempfe in Kuba, Algerien und die Ideen Mao Tse Tungs bestaerkten den militaerischen Teil der ETA in ihren Ansichten ueber die Durchfuehrbarkeit des revolutionaeren Kampfes und lieferten die ideologische Ausrichtung fuer die Ansicht , die nationale Befreiung sei mit der Klassenbefreiung gleichzusetzen. Die ETA geraet damit immer mehr ins Fahrwasser der linken, terroristischen Bewegungen, die sich in dieser Zeit in vielen Laendern Europas bilden.

Die naechste Stufe ist dann der Bruch mit dem Nationalismus der EAJ (PNV) und das offene Bekenntnis zum Sozialismus. Als die nach Frankreich gefluechteten ETA - Mitglieder auch hier beginnen ,Forderungen nach Unabhaengigkeit der noerdlichen baskischen Gebiete zu stellen, werden sie auch hier mit Verbannung, Hausdurchsuchungen und Festnahmen verfolgt.

Diese Verhaeltnisse aendern sich auch nicht wesentlich nach dem Tode Francos und der Einfuehrung der konstitutionellen Monarchie in Spanien. Erst mit der Einfuehrung des Autonomiestatuts fuer die spanischen Regionen im Jahr 1979 entspannt sich auch im Baskenland die Lage, weil Sprache und kulturelle Eigenheiten wieder zugelassen und nicht mehr verfolgt werden.

Die baskische Region Euskadi kann nun ueber Fragen der Kultur des Landes und auch Fragen der Landesentwicklung selbst entscheiden. Dies ist ein Fortschritt, der aber die baskischen Nationalisten, die weiterhin ein bundesstaatliches Konzept und die Wiederinkraftsetzung der Fueros fordern, noch in keiner Weise zufriedenstellt.

_______________________________________

Lesen Sie hierzu, umfassend und uebersichtlich dargestellt :

DIE GESCHICHTE VON ATLANTIS, der vergessene Ursprung unserer Kultur
von Karl Juergen Hepke

Neuerscheinung Anfang 2004, TRIGA-VERLAG, Hardcover, 270 Seiten, Eur 19,80

Basken

aus Wikipedia, der freien Enzyklopädie

Die Basken sprechen als einziges Volk des westlichen Europas keine indoeuropäische Sprache. Die baskische Sprache gilt als isolierte Sprache, da sie mit keiner anderen existierenden Sprache in Verbindung gebracht werden kann.
Die Herkunft der Basken ist ungeklärt. Einer sehr wahrscheinlichen Theorie nach gelten sie als Nachkommen der Iberer, bewiesen werden konnte dies bislang nicht.

Das Territorium der Basken erstreckt sich über die spanischen Provinzen Biscaya, Guipuzcoa und Alava, den Nordteil der spanischen Region Navarra und über Teile des französischen Départements Pyrénées-Atlantiques. In Alava wird heute kein Baskisch mehr gesprochen. Je nach Angaben gibt es zwischen 700.000 und 1.000.000 Basken.

Geschichte

Das heutige spanische und französische Baskenland bildete im 10. Jahrhundert gemeinsam mit der Provinz Navarra das Königreich Navarra.

Bis Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts besaßen die Basken in Spanien mit ihren Fueros eine gewisse Autonomie gegenüber der spanischen Krone.

In ihrer Geschichte hatten die Basken nur einmal einen eigenen Staat: während des spanischen Bürgerkriegs, die Republik Euzkadi von Oktober 1936 bis Juni 1937. Das historische Navarra war kein baskischer Staat im engeren Sinne.

Berühmte Basken: Ignatius von Loyola und Franz Xavier

Siehe auch: ETA, Baskenland

http://www.3sat.de/3sat.php?http://www.3sat.de/nano/news/32241/

http://www.net-lexikon.de/Basken.html

Basken

(Definition, Bedeutung, Erklärung im Lexikon)

Die Basken sprechen als einziges Volk des westlichen Europas keine indoeuropäische Sprache. Die baskische Sprache gilt als isolierte Sprache, da sie mit keiner anderen existierenden Sprache in Verbindung gebracht werden kann.
Die Herkunft der Basken ist ungeklärt. Einer sehr wahrscheinlichen Theorie nach gelten sie als Nachkommen der Iberer, bewiesen werden konnte dies bislang nicht.

Geschichte

Das heutige spanische und französische Baskenland bildete im 10. Jahrhundert gemeinsam mit der Provinz Navarra das Königreich Navarra.

Bis Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts besaßen die Basken in Spanien mit ihren Fueros eine gewisse Autonomie gegenüber der spanischen Krone.

Berühmte Basken: Ignatius von Loyola und Franz Xavier

http://www.red2000.com/spain/region/2r-vasc.html

EUSKARA, THE LANGUAGE OF THE BASQUE PEOPLE

The Basque language is an inflected language whose origin is still somewhat puzzling. The fact that it is not an Indoeuropean language, and shows no ressemblance to languages in neighbouring countries, has led to the formulation of a variety of hypotheses to explain its existence. Owing to some similarities with the Georgian language, some linguists think it could be related to languages from the Caucasus. Others relate the language to non-Arabic languages from the north of Africa. One of the most likely hypotheses argues that the Basque language developed "in situ", in the land of the primitive Basques. That theory is supported by the discovery of some Basque-type skulls in Neolithic sites, which ruled out the thesis of immigration from other areas. Many think it is a very old language because there are words, such as that for axe ("aizkora" or "haizkora") for example, that have the same root as the word rock ("aitz"> or "haitz")

The Basque language, an integral part of the craft world in Gipuzkoa

Throughout history, the Basque language has taken up words not only from Latin, Castilian and French, but also from Celtic (Deba, zilar: "silver"), and Arabic (azoka" "market", gutuna: "letter">). On the other hand, words such as the Castilian for "left" and "scrap"> ("izquierda" and "chatarra" respectively), and the French and English for "bizarre" come from the Basque language.

Rural communities have kept the language alive. Donardegi Basque farmstead.

Before Roman times, it seems that the Basque language was spoken in an area larger than the present one, which bordered on the north with Aquitane, and on the south with the River Ebro. It is estimated, nowadays, that more than 600,000 people speak Basque in the seven historic Basque provinces: Lapurdi, Zuberoa and Behenafarroa (in France), and Gipuzkoa, Bizcaia, Araba and Navarre (in Spain). There are 520,000 Basque speaking people in the Basque provinces in Spain, that is 25% of their total population.

The Basque language was not written until the 16th century, but that was not obstacle to creating a rich oral literature, kept alive up to the present times by the "bertsolarismo" and the pastorals. Curiously, the first written texts in the Basque language (the sentences "iziogui dugu" and "guec ajutu ez dugu", "we have lit" and "we have not helped") are in the 10th century Glosas Emilianenses, which contain the first examples of the Castilian ballad. In the 12th century, the Calixtino Codex mentions some Basque vocabulary of the people living along the pilgrim's road to Santiago de Compostela. But Linguae Vasconum Primitiae, the first book written in Basque by Bernard Dechepare, was not published until 1545. From the onwards, and not without difficulties, a flourishing literature has developed. The bersolarismo has been kept up in the oral literature. The "bertsolaris" improvise verses in a given metrical form (eight, ten lines...) for which they use little tunes. The meaning of the verses varies, going from satire and humour to the finest Iyricism. Competitions for bersolaris are held regularly; they help spread and interest in this type of popular literature.

"Kilometroak", a popular movement supporting the Basque language.

Things have not been easy for the Basque language. Apart from having to compete with two powerful neighbouring languages like Castilian and French, Basque was a forbidden language during the dictatorship that followed the Civil War. For decades, children had to study in an unfamiliar language, and were severely punished when they spoke in Basque, even at play time. An important movement to open up Basque schools called "ikastolas" started at that time. After a long and systematic effort on the part of many people, a parallel school network was set up to satisfy the needs of teaching in Basque. Today Basque schools are in the process of becoming part of the Basque state school, but in the French Basque Country, and some parts of Navarre, Basque schools are the only ones which provide teaching in Basque.

We also have to mention the effort carried out for the recovery of the Basque language among adults. Therefore, every year a large number of people, whose mother tongue is other than Basque, learn to speak Basque. That way, the old myth that Basque is an impossible language to learn, is gone for ever.

Religion, a key element in the development of the written Basque language.

From the studies carried out by Prince Luis Luciano Bonaparte, the author of the Linguistic Charter (1883), Basque is considered to be divided in seven main dialects (Roncalés, the eight one, is already dead), and a number of subdialects. The reason for such variety is the geographical location, and the fact that until recent times Basque was mainly spoken in rural areas. With a view to modernizing the language, so it could be used as a cultural vehicle, the first steps were taken to define a unified language from 1964 onwards. Since 1968 Euskaltzaindia (the Basque Academy of the Language), founded in Oñate in 1918, has been in charge of this task. The unified Basque language was called Euskara Batua (unified), and it is mainly based on the variety of dialects from Laburdi (with a major literary tradition), and Gipuzkoa. In spite of the natural criticism and controversy, Euskara Batua is, nowadays, the most widespread type used by the mass media, in literature, and teaching.

For those who wish to know more about the Basque language and literature, there are two interesting pocket books: "Mitología e Ideología sobre la Lengua Vasca", by A. Tovar, Alianza Editorial, n.= 771; and "Historia Social de la Literatura Vasca" by Ibon Sarasola, Akal 74, n.= 59. For a more detailed study on literature: "Historia de la Literatura Vasca", by Fr. L. Villasante, Ed. Aranzazu, 1979.

Useful information about the Basque Language

We mention here some useful words for visitors when they visit Gipuzkoa. Obviously, the idea is not to teach "Basque in 10 lessons".

The Basque language is used for everyday activities

Basque is not difficult to pronounce, and we point out here some of the most important differences in relation to Castilian.

g: ge and gi like gue and gui in Castilian, respectively. For example, in Gipuzkoa.
tx: like ch in Castilian; for example, "coche" (car).
ts: similar to tx, but softer.
tz: similar to zz in Italian, in pizza.
x: similar to sh in English, in show.
z: s sibilant.

It is useful to remember that because Basque is an inflected language, the words we list here may have different suffixes depending on the case in which are used, for example:

· etxe ..............home / house

· etxearen ..........belongs to the home / belongs to the house

· etxea .............the home / the house

· etxeko ............of the house

· etxean ............at home / in the house

· etxetik ...........from the house

· etxera ............go home

· etxerantz .........towards the house

Courtesy Vocabulary

· Adiós, saludo, hola,...Agur...................... Good-bye, greetings, (hello.. )

· Hola...............Kaixo..................... Hi

· Qué tal?............Zer moduz?................ How are you?

· Buenos días.........Egun on................... Good morning

· Buenas tardes........Arratsalde on............. Good afternoon

· Buenas noches.......Gabon..................... Good evening

· Hasta mañana........Bihararte................. See you tomorrow

· Hasta luego.........Gero arte.................. See you later

· Por favor...........Mesedez.................... Please

· Perdón!............Barkatu!................... Sorry!

· Gracias............Mila esker, eskerrik asko.. Thank you

· De nada............Ez horregatik.............. You are welcome, my pleasure

· Sí.................Bai........................ Yes

· No................Ez......................... No

To Understand Signs (in alphabetic order)

· Afaria................Cena ..................... Dinner

· Albergea..............Albergue .................. Hostal

· Alokatzen da..........Se alquila .................. To let, to hire, to rent

· Aparkalekua...........Aparcamiento................ Car park

· Autobus geltokia......Estación de autobuses........ Bus station

· Badabil...............Funciona................... In running order

· Bazkaria..............Comida.................... Lunch

· Botika................Farmacia................... Chemist

· Bulegoa...............Oficina.................... Office

· Eliza.................Iglesia..................... Church

· Emakumeak, Andreak....Señoras .................... Ladies

· Enparantza............Plaza...................... Square

· Etorbidea.............Avenida.................... Avenue

· Ez dabil..............No funciona ................. 0ut of order

· Ez erre...............No fumar ................... No smoking

· Gizonak...............Hombres................... Gentlemen

· Gosaria...............Desayuno .................. Breakfast

· Har eta Jan...........Restaurante autoservicio ...... Self service restaurant

· Hondartza.............Playa ......................Beach

· Hotela................Hotel..................... Hotel

· Irekita...............Abierto.................... Open

· Irteera...............Salida ..................... Exit

· Itxita................Cerrado ................... Closed

· Jatetxea..............Restaurante ................. Restaurant

· Kaia..................Puerto ..................... Port

· Kalea.................Calle .......................Street

· Kontuz!...............Cuidado! ................... Caution!, look out!

· Komuna................WC........................ Toilets

· Liburudenda...........Librería..................... Book shop

· Liburutegia...........Biblioteca.................... Library

· Ospitalea.............Hospital...................... Hospital

· Pasealekua............Paseo........................ Promenade

· Posta bulegoa.........Correos ...................... Post Office

· Sarrera...............Entrada...................... Way in

· Salgai (dago).........Se vende ..................... For sale

· Tren geltokia.........Estación de tren...............Railway station

· Turismo bulegoa.......Oficina de turismo ............. Turist Office

· Udaletxea.............Ayuntamiento .................. Town Hall

· Udaltzaingoa..........Policía Municipal .............. Municipal Police

· Zabalik...............Abierto .......................Open

· Zinema................Cine......................... Cinema

In Bars (how to order)

· Ardoa.............. Vino....................... Wine

· Ardo beitza........ Vino tinto ................ Redwine

· Ardo beitza bat.... Un vino tinto............. A red wine

· Beltza bat.......... Un tinto................... A wine

· Bi ardo gorri...... Dos claros ................ Two rosés

· Hiru ardo txuri ... Tres blancos.............. Three whaes

· Lau garagardo .... Cuatro cervezas .......... Four beers

· Bost-kafesne...... Cinco cafés con leche .... Five white coffees

· Esnea.............. Leche....................... Milk

· Kafe utza ......... Café solo .................. Black coffee

· Kafe ebakia....... Café cortado............... Coffee with a little milk

· Patxarana......... Pacharán.................... Pacharán(afnuityanis)

· Sagardoa.......... Sidra........................ Cider

· Tea................ Té............................ Tea

· Txakolina ........ Txakoli .................... Txakoli (sharp-tasting Basque white wine)

· Ura................ Agua........................ Water

· Ur minerala....... Agua mineral ............. Mineral water

· Zuritoa ........... Vasito de cerveza.......... Small glass of beer

Basque Vocabulary In Place-Names

Many of the place-names mentioned here have to do with their physical description. Therefore, it could be useful to know some of the words most frequently used.

· .aga ................. lugar de ................. place of

· Aitz or haitz ........ Peña..................... Rock

· Aran................. Valle..................... Valley

· Aritz ................ Roble .................... Oak tree

· Baserri ............. Caserio................... Basque farmstead

· Berri................ Nuevo..................... New

· Borda............... Cabaña................... Hut

· Ereñotz............. Laurel..................... Laurel

· Erreka............... Arroyo................... Stream

· .eta.................. lugar de ................... place for

· Etxe................. Casa........................ House/home

· -gain................ sobre, encima............. On, over, upon

· Gorri................ Rojo, pelado.............. Red

· Herri ................ Pueblo ................... Small town

· Ibai.................. Río......................... River

· Iturri................. Fuente.................... Fountain

· Korta................ Pasto...................... Pasture

· Langa................ Puerta rústica, portilla.. Rustic door

· Lizar................. Fresno ................... Ashtree

· Mendi................ Monte..................... Mountain

· Pago................. Haya...................... Beechtree

· .pe(an).............. debajo..................... under

· Zabal ................ Amplio, abierto.......... Wide, broad,open

· Zarra,Zaharra....... Viejo..................... Old

· Zubi.................. Puente.................... Bridge

For example, Aizkorri: a bare mountain; Etxeberria: a new house.

The Basques

About three million Basques live in their green and beautiful homeland in the Pyrenees Mountains. The land of the Basques (called Eskual Herria in the Basque language) straddles the border of France and Spain, comprising three French and four Spanish provinces. The Basques are a distinctive people with several unique characteristics:

Language - Basque is apparently the only Western European language that does not belong to the Indo-European family of languages. Written Basque is as strange-looking as the language is strange-sounding, featuring an extraordinary number of x's and an apparent disregard for vowels. The Basques refer to themselves as Euskaldunak, or ``speakers of the Euzkara''. Contemporary theories suggest that Basques may have descended from early Iberian tribes, and this language presumably came with them.

Legend states the Devil tried to learn Basque by listening behind the door of a Basque farmhouse. After seven years, he mastered only two words: ``Yes, Ma'am.'' This, say the Basques, is a tribute to their women as well as the difficulty of their tongue.

Blood - Blood-type frequencies cement the Basques claims of ethnic uniqueness. They have the world's highest frequency of type O and RH negative blood. The Basques clearly are a people which did not mingle with outsiders.
Toughness - The Basques are a tough people, with a strong determination to preserve their national character. They defended themselves against the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Romans and the Visigoths. The Basques wiped out half of Emperor Charlemagne's rear guard at the battle of the Pass of Roncesvalles. Guernica was a Basque village leveled in the Spanish Civil War, made famous by Picasso's painting - now it is the home of the largest fronton on Europe.

The Basque love of freedom continues today. For over thirty years, the terrorist group ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna, translated as Basque Homeland and Liberty) has been fighting Spain to win the independence of the Basque region, and killing some 800 people in the process. More recently, the spectacular new Guggenheim museum in Bilbao has put the Basque region on the map for something other than jai-alai or terrorist activities.

Indeed, the Basque region of Spain and France is a terrific place to spend a vacation. A one-week trip could combine the unique architecture of Bilbao with the spectacular beaches of San Sebastian. You can drive winding cliff roads along an unspoiled rocky coast, stopping to eat fresh seafood and tapas, the little plates of savory appetizers which have spread throughout Spain but originated in the Basque country. You can stop in nearby Pamplona to see the running of the bulls, made famous by Hemingway. And, of course, you can watch the finest jai-alai in the world.

The Basques are a people who live in a small region (about the size of Rhode Island) that straddles the border of Spain and France from the sea in the west into the Pyrenees in the east. This area is called Euskal Herria (comprising seven provinces, historically: Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, and Navarra on the Spanish side; Laburdi, Zuberoa, and Behe-Nafarroa on the French side). Basques speak a language called euskara, but today only about 25% of the population is fluent in that tongue. Even so, the word for a Basque person, euskaldun, means “possessor of the Basque language.” The Basque population is distinguished physically by a high incidence of Rh Negative factor in the blood.

Where do they come from?
No one knows exactly where the Basques came from. Some say they have lived in that area since Cro-Magnon man first roamed Europe. Estimates of how long they have lived there vary from 10,000 to 75,000 years. Some say they are descended from the original Iberians. More fanciful theories exist, as well. One is that the Basques are the descendents of the survivors of Atlantis.

Where does the Basque language come from?
Just as no one is sure about the origins of the Basques themselves, linguists are not in agreement over the origins of Euskara, the Basque language, either. (In Basque, the word euskara is not capitalized, but when using it in English, it is customary to capitalize it, just as we capitalize the names of other languages.) Although there are theories (none of them proven beyond a doubt) that Basque is related to other languages (such as the Georgian family of languages in the Caucasus, or the Berber language family of Africa, or even the Quechua language of Latin America), so far the only thing most experts agree on is that Euskara is in a language family by itself. That is, it is not related to any other language in the world. It is, therefore, not an Indo-European language (the large group to which English, French, Spanish, and Russian belong).

How many Basque Speakers are there in the Basque Country?
There are less than 600,000 fluent speakers in the Autonomous Community of Euskadi (Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa) and about 400,000 more who have learned some Basque but are not considered fluent. Since most of the Basque speakers of the world live in that area, these numbers give us a close estimate of the number worldwide. There are perhaps 15,000 speakers in Iparralde (the three provinces on the French side of the border), and it is estimated that about 10% of the people in Navarre speak Basque. There are also pockets of Basque speakers in Latin America and in North America. Basque speakers are called Euskaldunak, possessors of Euskara, and those who learn the language later in life are called Euskaldun berriak, “new Basques.”

Despite persistent theories about where the Basques came from (everything from a lost tribe of Israel to refugees from Atlantis), there is no evidence that the Basques of ancient times lived anywhere other than where they are now, in the Pyrenees Mountains of northern Spain and southern France. The evidence available suggests that the Basques are the descendents of prehistoric man dating from the Lower Palaeolithic. Evolving from the Cro-Magnon man, the Basques developed as a distinct group sometime between 40,000 BC and 7,000 BC.

(Discovered in 1994 at Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, Ardeche, France)
Prehistoric cave paintings have been discovered
in several mountain caves in the Basque homeland.

Dolmen de Mazerlegos near Burgos, Spain

Menag in Malaga, Spain -- the largest dolmen in Europe

Thousands of megalithic sites remain throughout areas of early Basque occupation in Spain, France and Portugal.
The Basques are known to have had their distinctive language as early as 7,000 BC, and they have the last remaining non-IndoEuropean language in the area. Their language, Euskara, is the oldest surviving language in all of Europe; many of their words for tools still incorporate the word for stone. From about the 6th century BC, the Indo-European culltures wiped out all of the pre-Indo-European languages in Europe except for Basque. Attempts to link the Basque language with others, such as the Berbers of northern Africa, the Mayans and Old Sanscrit have not worked out. Basque has not been shown to be related to any other language on earth. Those used to European languages found Basque very difficult to learn. There was an old story that the devil spent seven years among the Basques to learn their language, but only managed to learn three words; when he crossed a bridge to leave the land of the Basques, he forgot those. Many Basque words have entered other European languages. For example, laranga ('that which was first eaten') is the origin of the word orange (one of the few words in the English language that no other word rhymes with), and Basque sailors swearing 'by Janicot' gave rise to the British 'by jingo.'
Despite having the oldest language in Europe, no writing was known among the Basques until the Romans, when attempts were made to write Basque in Latin; however, it wasn't until the Christian missionaries arrived en masse in the 10th century that someone developed a phonetic form of writing to represent the language itself. Writings are known from other nearby peoples, such as the now assimilated Iberians of southeastern Spain. The Iberians also had a non-IndoEuropean language, which has so far defied translation. Some of the oldest tombstones of the Basques were said to contain some kind of writing, but the Christian missionaries destroyed them.

(National Geographic, 1967, By William Albert Allard)
The Basques are mountain people.

The Basques live on the western end of the Pyrenees Mountains on the Iberian Peninsula, down to the Bay of Biscay. For as long as anyone can remember, they have had seven provinces; the oldest is called Gipuzkoa (Gu-iz-puzk-ko-ak), which means 'we whose language was broken.'

A typical Basque house
(livestock often lived on the first floor)

Those in the mountains raised sheep, while those along the water were fishermen and traders. Every Basque meal was accompanied by bread (ogi) and cider (sagardo), and cider-houses were common in the countryside. Basques are normally dark-haired, small to medium statue, with broad chests (developed from living in the thin air on mountains). Most Basques have type O blood, with a high incidence of RH negative.

The mountain town of Tolosa in Gipuzkoa

The Basque Domingo de Carnaval in the seaport of Mundaka

The Basques worshipped Djaun-Giokkoak (Janicot), the All-Father All-Mother who created the three forms of light: Egia (truth), the light of the soul, Begia (eye), the light of the body and Etchia (sun), the light of the earthly day. The divine light manifested on Earth as three powers: Erditze (the Fruitful), of the high pastures, Beigorri (the Passionate), of the red earth and Alherbeltze (the Crusher), of the black rocks. Alherbeltze (later shortened to Bel) ruled the stone circles erected throughout what is modern day France and Spain by the Basques, and the three manifestations of divine light in human affairs celebrated therein: birth, marriage and death. The stones were often carved with representations of the fact that here the veil between the physical and spiritual worlds was thin: two circles connected by concentric circles, representing Bel, ruler of the bright world, and Leheren Suge (three-horned dragon), ruler of the dark world . The two worlds are inhabited equally by men and are therefore equal themselves. Bel's reign was celebrated on May 1 (usually with a Maypole Dance), while Leheren's reign was celebrated November 1; of course, in the days before mechanical clocks, each day started at sunset the day before.

Basque Maypole Dance

The 3X3 manifestations of the divine were represented by the Circle of Nine, a circle with nine stones; sometimes the ninth stone was horizontal, with two uprights flanking.

The Path of the Three-fold Light is followed by Basque mystics, but Basque Witches follow more down-to-earth hierarchies. Mari is the oldest and supreme goddess of the Basques. She is the goddess of thunder and wind, the personification of the earth. The Dragon Maju (also called Sugaar), lord of thunder, is her husband, and her twin sons are one good (Atarrabi), one evil (Mikelats). Encounters between Mari and Maju result in terible thunderstorms. Mari protects travelers and the herds and gives good council to humans. She rides through the sky on a chariot of fire, and sometimes assumes the shape of the rainbow. Mari ("queen") is represented as a woman with a full moon behind her head, or in an animal shape. Her symbol is the sickle. Although Mari is said to live in the deepest caves, stone circles where she is worshipped are typically erected on the summits of many mountains.

Sant Pere de Rodes in Cataluna, Spain

La Cottoria near Burgos, Spain

In a later pantheon, Mari became the earth goddess Lur, whose husband was the sky god Ortzi (also called Ost) and whose children were twin girls, Ekhi (the Sun) (also called Eguzki) and Ilazki (the Moon) (also called Illargui or Iretargui). One beam of Ekhi's light destroys the spells of evil wizards, while Ilazki's light guides the souls of the dead. Lesser spirits are the Laminak (fairies), the Lamiak (water nymphs or mermaids) and Basajaun (satyrs of the forests). The Basajauns are an ancient race who taught man many of the arts of civilization (or alternately, were tricked out of the knowledge by humans). They typically warn shepards that a storm is coming by whistling. Additionally, ancient stone circles on mountains are said to have been built by the Intxitxu, invisible spirits of the ancestors.

(From the cemetary at Argineta, Ellorio, Bizkaia)
Basque tombstone

Both the Greeks and the Basques of ancient times believed that the first people were centaurs. The very word centaur is derived from the Basque word Zalzaval (horse-man).

Cave art from Ekain (Deba - Guipuzcoa), 25,000 B.C.

Cave art from Lagarma (Cantabria), 15,000 B.C.

Cave art from Santimamine (Kortezubi-Vizcaya), 17,000 B.C.

Many prehistoric cave paintings in the Pyrenees depict the horse, and one of the oldest Basque festivals (the Rigodon dance, from erri-goi-doi, meaning "City of Heaven") features a man in the horse costume (zamalzain, the horse-man) dancing around a cup, variously referred to as the Grail or the entrance to the spirit world. Today, this is a glass of wine.

The zamalzain, in his dance, plays the part of a shaman in instructing the watchers how to gain entrance to Errigodoi. The Basques used to refer to themselves as the descendents of the Centaurs (Cantavres), who came to earth on the mountain ridge at Oca (today, Demanda) in the center of an ancient island. In ancient times, the Basque area of Europe was indeed an island. In the 9th century, Beato de Liebana of the Monastery of Liebana wrote a manuscript called 'Comentarios al Apocalipsis' which included a Mapa Mundi showing the Basque region as an island; he copied this map from ancient documents preserved in the monastery.

Basques in Britain

When a group of Basques settled in Britain between 9,000 and 5,000 BC, they took with them the worship of Bel, his Holy Day of May 1, and the building of stone circles. Later, the Beaker People arrived and mixed with the Basques, bringing their innovations, such as working silver and gold. When the Greek geographer Pytheas sailed around Britain in 325 BC, he called them the Pretanic Isles because the inhabitants called themselves the Priteni. This evolved into Prytani (Prytaini, Prydaini), and later became Britanni. In 297 AD the Roman, Emmenius, referred to the people of northern Britain as the 'Picti.' Most researchers believe this to refer to the Latin word 'pictus,' meaning 'painted.' Some, however, believe it may be a latinized version of Priteni, after the Norse 'Pettr,' old English 'Peohta,' and old Scots 'Pecht.'
The Prytani built many stone structures, including stone circles, standing stones, dolmens and stone chambers in earthworks. The inner chambers of these structures were used for ritualistic purposes, and the Prytani buried their dead in a fetal position so they would be ready for rebirth. At Belteine, the rebirth of summer was celebrated with bonfires atop many hills, where cattle were driven through the flames to ensure their fertility for the coming year (and the people also jumped through the flames). The Prytani also worshipped the Old Serpent, who was thought to travel across the countryside on straight paths at certain times of the year. The old straight tracks (called ley lines today) that criss-cross Britain between standing stones have been dated to between 4000 BC and 2000 BC.

Pict carved stones from Scotland

Left, a cup and ring Pict carving from Scotland. Right, a Pict running cross (lauburu) from northern England; this is the oldest and most extensive design in Basque art.

Pict Stone Circles

The Nine Maidens

The Circle of Nine

The Prytani were masters of brewing a special ale from heather flowers that was so good, the Celts who came later greatly coveted the secret of the brew. Neolithic shards dated to 2000 BC show traces of the fermented heather ale, so we know this was one of the oldest drinks of the Prytani. It was from this ale that the Celts later made the first whiskey. The story goes that a clan of Celts was brewing heather ale one cool night when the vapor from the brew condensed on their stone roof and ran into a drinking cup. When one of the Celts drank it, he thought he had discovered the fabled 'water of life,' uisge-beatha. When the English later conquered the Celts and ordered the making of heather ale stopped, the Celts replied, "Pog mo thon!" (kiss my arse!)

When the Celts swept through the lowland empire of the Basques in Gaul (the Basques retreated to the safety of their seven mountain strongholds), the Celts adopted the Basque short sword (later borrowed by the Romans) and the worship of Bel. Thus, when the Celts entered Britain in force to face a thousand years of warfare against almost a million Prytani, both sides worshipped Bel, held May 1 as a Holy Day, and had chiefs named Bel. The seven royal houses of the Prytani were descended from the seven sons of a great Prytani king, and each ruled its own province. The Celts called them 'Cruithni,' which meant 'tribe of the designs,' after the tatoos they sported.
The Celts originated somewhere in central Europe and expanded their empire in all directions. Around 400 BC, they suddenly appeared and destroyed the Etruscans and then sacked Rome. The Romans noted that the Celts were tall and muscular, with hair they bleached blonde, and often went naked into battle. When the Romans protested the Celts armed incursion into the area, the Celts told the Romans that anything they could take by force of arms was rightfully theirs.
However, when Rome rallied after a few hundred years, it took over much of the empire the Celts had carved out. In 55 B.C., Julius Caesar ordered the invasion of Britain, and under the Emperor Vespasian, Julius Agricola attacked the Caledonians at Mons Grampius, where the lowlands met the highlands, in 84 AD. The Caledonians were a mix of Prytani and Celts, who had come from Ireland, and although Agricola killed 30,000 of them, he paid a high price himself. As a result, after building a series of forts, the Romans withdrew and the Caledonians returned. When the Romans returned, they concentrated on subduing the Celts in the south, where they met less resistance. As the Romans expanded their territory northward, they came into conflict with the Prytani, whom they called the Picts (painted people). Although the Roman soldier was, one on one, probably the best warrior around, the Prytani had huge numbers and were fierce fighters. They wiped out the fabled Roman Ninth Legion, which had subdued the Celts in Gaul. The Prytani were expert horsemen and on the water, the large Prytani fleet proved more than a match for the Roman galleys. The Roman Emperor Hadrian ordered the building of Hadrian's Wall across Britain in 122 A.D. to keep the Prytani away from his troops. This didn't work, and in 139 AD, Emperor Antoninus Pius ordered the Antoinine Wall built across Britain to protect his troops from the Prytani. This wall was 37 miles long and nine feet tall, with forts every two miles and many signal towers in between. On the northern side, it had a 36 foot wide ditch, while a road ran along the protected southern side. Even this did not protect the Romans from the Prytani warriors.
A joke of the time goes like this:
The Romans were marching north when a Prytani warrior leaped out from behind a hillock and said, "So you're Romans, are ye? Give me your ten best men, then!" Ten legionnaires were dispatched. Bang, crash, wallop! None returned. A hundred Roman soldiers were sent up. Five minutes later a lone survivor stumbles back and drops dead before he can say anything. In a fury, the Roman commander sends his entire army up the hill. The sounds of battle ensue, followed by one Roman officer appearing on the hill. "Sir! Sir! They cheated! They lied! There were two of them all the time!"
In 208 A.D., the Roman Emperor Severus landed in Britain with 40,000 seasoned Roman troops. Not giving the Picts time to mass their numbers, the Romans swiftly destroyed many Pict towns and armies, killing 10,000 a day at the height of their campaign. The campaign lasted for two years, until the Roman Emperor died at York in 211 AD. Afterward, the Prytani decided they could live with staying north of Hadrian's Wall. The Romans withdrew from Britain after a few hundred years, and when they left the Celts took over in the south and the west.
In the west, the Celts had mixed with the Prytani they found there when they arrived and created a distinct group called the Cymry (Welsh). The Welsh Chieftain Owain Ddantgwyn, son of the Head Dragon Enniaun Girt and grandson of Cunedda, took the title 'Arthur' (great bear), after his personal totem. He ruled the kingdoms of Gwynedd and Powys, put down several rebellions and defeated the withdrawing Romans at the Battle of Badon. Finally, his nephew, Maglocunus, son of Cadwallon Lawhir, pushed aside Arthur's son Cuneglasus (charioteer of the Bear's stronghold) and defeated Arthur at the Battle of Camlan, a border area between Gwynedd and Powys.
A force of the Clan Dal Riata in Ireland raided the west coast of Britain in 360 AD. Niall of the Nine Hostages, High King of Ireland, returned to Ireland with captured fellow Celts as slaves, while some of his men settled in parts of the north and formed alliances with the Prytani. They called their new settlement among the Prytani 'Dalriada' and here they deposited the Stone of Destiny (later to be called the Stone of Scone) which they had brought with them from Ireland. These Celts called themselves 'Scottii,' and they intermarried with the Prytani royalty and fought alongside them against both the Romans and the Celts in the south and west.
In the south of Britain, the Celts had turned back an invasion of the West Saxons in 495 A.D., but they then descended into inter-tribal warfare. The weakened Celts were thus easily defeated by an invasion of Anglo-Saxons in 685 A.D. When the Anglo-Saxons met the Prytani, however, a much smaller army of Prytani completely wiped them out.
The Celtic Bard Taleisin spoke of the conflict with the Prytani in his "Cad Godeu" (Battle of the Trees):

Am I not he who will sing
Of beauty in what is small;
Beauty in the battle of the Tree-tops
Against the country of the Prydein."

When St. Columba converted the Prytani to Celtic Christianity, he needed an interpreter to converse with the Prytani King; even though Columba was fluent in all the Celtic dialects, the Prytani tongue was unknown to him. Shortly after their conversion, the Prytani embarked on a massive project of carving crosses everywhere. Many of the stone crosses discovered in Britain and called Celtic are in fact Pict.
In 741 AD, the Prytani King Oengus launched a campaign that nearly wiped out the Celts in the south. He even crossed to Ireland to fight Celts there, and was only persuaded to stop fighting by an offer from the Celts to give the Prytani all the women descendents of the Tuatha de Danann held in bondage by the Celts. These descendents of the Tuantha de Dannan had been kept in captivity because of a plea by the Egyptian Princess Scotus, originally the wife of the great Celtic warrior Milesius, who died in Spain before the Celts invaded Ireland. Scotus had come to Ireland as the third wife of Eremon, who was one of the eight sons of Milesius, and the first ruler of the Celts in Ireland (after he killed his brother Eber and the Druid Amergin). Scotus had pleaded for the lives of the conquered Tuatha de Dannan, so Eremon had spared a few of them and kept them in perpetual bondage. A thousand years of fighting invaders had left the Prytani with a diminished population, so Oengus accepted. Oengus returned to Britain, where he declared himself the King of the Prytani and the Celts.
For centuries, the Prytani had resisted constant invasions by the Vikings. However, in 839 A.D., while the Prytani King Eoghann was fighting a rebellious Celtic chieftain named Elfin (later historians changed it to Alpin) who called himself King of the Scots, an army of invading Vikings came upon the scene. The Prytani had just won the battle with the Celts and put Elfin's head on a pike, when the Vikings attacked and killed the King of the Prytani, his successor, and the leaders of all seven royal houses. Two years later, the seven Earls of Dalraida who had replaced the ruling body of the Prytani were lured to a treacherous death at Scone by Kenneth MacElfin, son of the slain Celtic chieftain and a Prytani Princess mother. Already having declared himself the King of the Scots, he now declared himself the King of the Prytani, swearing it on the Stone of Scone. Of the remaining Prytani, some were massacred, some were driven north, and the remainder intermarried with the Scotts. By this time, the Prytani constituted only about ten per cent of the population of northern Britain. The Prytani had had 69 recorded kings in their kingdom, and the most enduring legacy they left was the naming of their island after themselves: Britain, after Ynis Prydain.
Those left in the far north intermarried with Vikings, who could now settle there without much opposition. These mixed bloods were called Gaileys (foreigners) by the Celts, who made them a Sept of the Clan Gunn. My wife is a Gailey.

Back in Europe

Meanwhile, the Romans in Gaul had not conquered the Basques, but lived with them peacefully. Iruna ('the city' in Basque), the first urban creation of the Basques, was taken over by the Romans and renamed Pampaelo after Pompey; it was later to be known as Pamplona.

A Roman-built wall in Zaragoza

Although there were Basque soldiers in the army of Hannibal, they did not not take part in the conflict between Carthage and Rome, except to defend Sertorius, the Roman general who had shown respect for them.
When the power of Rome waned, the Basques defended themselves against the barbarians who invaded the Iberian Peninsula, including the Germanic Swabian tribes and the Visigoths (the latter did beat the Basques in several battles). Later, the Basques defeated invading armies of both the Berbers and Goths. When the Frankish King, Charlemagne, ravaged the Basque city of Pamplona while retreating from combat with the Arabs in 778 AD, the Basque army caught up with him at the Orreaga mountain pass (called Rencesvaux in French) and the resulting massacre of the Franks was immortalized in the Song of Roland. Although the Song claimed Charlemagne was defeated by a superior Muslim army, it was really the Basques (who show up in the Song as the demons who aided the Arabs) who wiped out Charlemagne's army. In 824 AD, the Basque army crushed a second Frankish army in the same mountain pass where Charlemagne was caught, and the Basques founded the Kingdom of Pamplona (later called the Kingdom of Navarre) to fight against the Franks in the north and the Arabs in the south. The Basque kingdom began with the Basque king, Eneko (Inigo) de Aritza, and ended four centuries later with Sancho VII the Strong.
In 1212 AD, a band (koadrilla) of Basques helped the Christian alliance (including the Templars) of Alphonso VII defeat the Moors at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. Subsequently, Alphonso formed three Basque territories into the Kingdom of Castille. As a result of political maneuvers, the seven provinces of the Basques were divided between the Kingdoms of Navarre and Castille many times over the next few hundred years. In 1394, an agreement between the Castillian monarchy and the Basques of Guernica allowed the Basque councils to meet annually under a tree called the Oak of Guernica to formulate local laws. This tree came to represent liberty and independence to the Basques, and a song called Guernikako Arbola (Oak of Guernica) became the Basque national anthem. By the mid-1500's, the Basque territories were being fought over by France and Spain, and the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 divided the land between them. Over a period of several hundred years, many French and Spanish monarchs were persuaded to guarantee the Basques the right to autonomy, making the journey to so swear beneath the Oak of Guernica.
When Napoleon was unable to conquer the Basques, he came up with an ingenious plan: he had also been unable to conquer the Sicilians, so he hired Basque mercenaries to fight the Sicilians! Within three days of landing, the Basques had conquered Sicily; however, Napoleon had tricked the Basques. As soon as they were gone from their farms and villages, Napoleon sent in his men to kill the women and children left behind. The Basques in Sicily found out about this, and turned and sided with the Sicilians. Thus, Napoleon never got Sicily, and the Basques who settled there added words of their language to the already mixed speech of the Sicilians. In the 1800's, the Basques fought two wars against Spanish oppression, called the Carlist Wars. They ceased fighting the first war when they were promised their independence would remain; however, this promise was broken, so they went to war again. They lost the second war, and for the first time since their inception, the autonomous rights of the Basques were legally dismissed.
Throughout the 1900's, the Basques have formed many organizations and provisional governments to fight for their freedom. After a Basque army attacked the French in 1936, the Spanish Dictator Franco had his friends, the Nazis, conduct the first aircraft bombardment of the war against the Basques in Guernika; the Liberty Tree survived, but over a thousand Basques were killed. During WWII, the Basque leader escaped the Nazis and fled to New York, where he setup the Basque government in exile in 1942. After the war, the Basques continued their struggle for freedom in their home territory. Beginning in 1968, several Basque organizations resorted to terrorist acts against Spanish officials. With the death of Franco in 1975, the new Spanish king, Juan Carlos I, promised reforms for the Basques. On the local level among Spanish police, however, cruel suppression of the Basques continued, making the reforms slow in coming. Finally, in 1979, the Basques were granted a measure of autonomy, and in 1980, the new Basque president took his oath under the Tree of Guernica as dictated by tradition.

The current Oak of Guernica

The most well-known Basque was probably St. Ignatius of Loyola. Actually, he wasn't from Loyola, but a small town made infamous by the Holy Inquisition. Since Ignatius led a group of Kabbalists who after several attempts managed to become an order of the Roman Church (originally called the Companions or Company of Jesus, they eventually became the Jesuits), he probably thought it wise not to advertize exactly where he grew up. Basques were great seafarers, and they sailed with many explorers, including Columbus and Magellan (Magellan's Basque lieutenant, Sebastian Elkano, completed the first voyage around the world after Magellan died during the trip; other Basque sailors on this journey brought corn to Europe). The Basques have given us the beret (txapela) and the game of pilota (called Jai-Alai by everyone else). The Roman soldiers brought their cult of Mithras, with its ritual killing of a bull, and the Basque town of Pamplona is well-known for its bullfights and the annual running of the bulls through city streets.

A Basque bullfighter gets a kiss for good luck.

The strong tradition of oral wisdom among the Basques is replete with dozens of well-used proverbs. Here are three:
1. "Gaua, gogapenen ama." -- 'The night is the mother of thought.'
2. "Izena duen guztiak izatea ere badauje." -- 'Everything with a name exists.'
3. "Nola soinu, hala dautza." -- 'Each kind of music calls for its own kind of dance.'
Many Basques have emigrated to other mountainous lands, such as South America and the United States. Keeping their language and customs intact have been difficult for the Basques, in light of French and Spanish attempts to limit their independent nature. The Basques have another popular saying: "A free man I was born, and a free man I will die."

http://www.angelfire.com/nt/dragon9/BASQUES.html

Dictons et proverbes basques

"Izan gabe eman dezake gun gauza bakara da zori ona"

Le bonheur est la seule chose que nous puissions donner sans l'avoir.

"Hobe da auzo on bat eziez askazi ehun bat!"
Mieux vaut un bon voisin que cent parents!

Saharago eta beharago

Plus on est vieux et plus on a de besoins.

Ohetik mahaina, mahaitik zuzulura, korrongaz paraduzura

Du lit à la table, de la table à l'archibanc, et de l'archibanc en ronflant au paradis.

Ahoa debilano sabela botz

Tandis que la bouche est occupée à manger, la panse a de la joie.

"dirua lagun ona: jabe txarra"

l'argent est un bon compagnon mais un mauvais maître.

"Gaboneta plantxan, Sanjuanetan plazan"

Olentzero au foyer, Saint Jean sur la place.

Bide bazterreko pikoa eta ostatuko neskatoa goizik zohitzen.
Les figues des bords de routes, et les jeunes filles des bars mûrissent tôt.

Zer probetxu da bide luzeari lotzeaz, gogo duen lekhura heltzen ezpada ?
Quel intérêt de suivre la longue route si l'on n'arrive pas à destination.

Ez da eltze hain itsusirik bere estalkia ez duenik.
Il n'y a pas de plus laids chaudrons que celui qui n'a point de couvercle.

Astoz joan, mandoz itzuli.
Partir à dos d'âne et revenir à dos de mulet.

Minik handienak, burutik heldu direnak.
Les plus grands maux sont ceux qui viennent de la tête.

Bethi ordu duena, bethi berant heldu dena.
Celui qui n'est pas pressé arrive toujour en retard.

Urrun nahi duenak heldu, ez du behar zaldia lehertu.
Celui qui veut aller loin ménage sa monture.

Nehor ez da zerurat heltzen begiak idorrik.
Personne n'arrive au ciel sans larmes à l'oeil.

Ile politek eta begi ederrek ez dute eltzea irakitarazten.
les beaux cheveux et les beaux yeux ne font pas bouillir la marmite.

Txapela batez ez daite bi buru estal

Deux têtes dans un beret sont chose impossible.

"Ahoa debilano sabela botz"

Tandis que la bouche est occupée à manger, la panse a de la joie.

"Dupina emendatuz gaixtotzen da"

L'augmente d'eau gâte le potage.

"Urte gaitzari bihur daite belazki, arto eta urdai etxen duena aski"

Celui-là résistera gaillardement à la mauvaise année, qui a du pain,

du miel et du lard en suffisance dans sa maison.

"Arraina eta arrotza, heren egunak, karatzek, kanpora deragotza"

Le poisson et l'hôte deviennent puants passé trois trois jours

et les faut jeter hors de la maison.

"Urtzoa eder airean, ederrago mahainean"

La palombe est belle dans les airs, plus belle encore sur la table.

"Amak irin balu opil balaidi"

Si ma mère avait de la farine, elle ferait des gâteaux.

"Urte gaitzari bihur daite belazki, arto eta urdai etxen duena aski."

Celui-là résistera gaillardement à la mauvaise année, qui a du pain,

du miel et du lard en suffisance dans sa maison.

"Arabarra jan eta poz,*

Bizkaitarra jan da otz".

"L'Alavais, après avoir mangé est joyeux,

Le Bizcayen, après avoir mangé reste froid".

(tiré de "Etre basque" de Jean Haritschelhar - Editions - PRIVAT)

Devinettes

Hortzak behera eta ahua goiti : eskalanpua.

Les dents en bas et la bouche en haut : le sabot.

Gona motz, gingila luze : ezkila.

Jupon court, jambe longue : la cloche.

Mundu huntan den gaizarik zalhiena, deusek arrestatzen ahal eztiena : ezpiritua.

La plus agile de toutes les choses du monde, que rien ne peut arrêter : l’esprit.

Aita latz, ama beltz, larrua gorri, humea churi : gaztaina.

Le père rugueux, la mère noire, la peau rouge, l’enfant blanc : la châtaigne.

Bethi ernari, behinere ezin erdi : hurra

Toujours pleine et n’accouchant jamais: la noisette

sommaire

http://membres.lycos.fr/abarka/site_abarka/proverbes_et_devinettes.htm
Celts, Basques and Picts

While the Roman and German influence essentially defined Medieval culture, there were other ethnic groups around who had some impact, and left some reminders of their presence. The chief among these also-rans were the Celts, Basques ,and Picts. The latter two groups belonged to the original human inhabitants of Europe, people who, several millenia B.C. had established themselves and their cultures throughout Europe. These included the Ligurians (in what is now Germany and France), Iberians (in Spain), Picts (in Britain), the Sikels (in Sicily), and the proto-Latins (in Italy). Up in Scandinavia were the Germans. In what is now eastern Europe were Slavs and Celts. The Germans who later stayed behind became the Vikings and the modern Scandinavians. In the Balkans were more Ligurian peoples. In Greece you had Greeks. Further east you had Etruscans (who later migrated to Italy), Semites, Persians and Dravidians until you ran into the people who looked Chinese .

The ethnic composition of Europe was quite different during the Medieval period, and even more so during the 1st and 2nd Centuries BC, when the Romans were putting their empire together.

In the beginning, there were the Ligurians, Iberians and related peoples in Europe. These peoples developed from the neolithic (cavemen) types that settled in Europe after the last ice age ended some 10,000 years ago. The Celts gradually moved in from the east about 4,000 years ago. By the time Rome was getting established in the 5th Century BC, the Celts were the principal culture in most of France, plus parts of the Balkans and Spain. But the earlier peoples did not disappear, and one of them, the Basques, survives to this day in Spain and France. The Picts held out in part of Scotland until the early Medieval period, being largely absorbed by the adjacent Celts by the 10th century. The Ligurians (except for the Basques), Iberians, and Etruscans disappeared. The Latin peoples, including the Romans, also disappeared as a distinct culture, but many centuries later, become the Italians, Spanish, French and other Romance types. Of course, the people didn't literally disappear, but melded with other groups while losing their unique language and customs.

The Celts still exist today, in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Brittany. Unlike Latin, the Gaelic languages of the Celts can still be heard in parts of Europe.Their earlier wanderings can still be identified by the name Galicia given to certain areas of such widely distant regions as Spain, Anatolia, and Poland

The Celts shared many traits with the Germans and Slavs. Before the Celts settled down in Gaul (as the Romans called France back then), they were very similar in appearance and custom to the Germans. This is not surprising, as the Celts lived in the same environments as the later Germans. When the Celts did settle down, they became quite civilized. They established large, walled, towns and were quite expert at metal working. Unlike the Romans, however, the Celts were not inclined to obey a central authority. The Celts were noted for their considerable individualism. This was what eventually did them in when they went up against the highly disciplined Romans.

The Celts were one of the many Indo-European tribes that migrated out central Asia, migrations that largely ended two thousand years ago, to be replaced by Oriental tribes and armies coming from even farther east in central Asia. Like their cousins the Persians (who established Persia and still inhabit present day Iran), the Ayrans (still noticiable in northern India), the Kurds (who are still stalled in the Middle Eastern mountains), the Celts kept moving until they found a thinly populated place they liked and then set up permanent residence. After passing through Anatolia, the Balkans, northern Italy and central Europe, the Celts found a home in France and Spain, and later on into Britain. In all the areas they passed through along the way, some Celts stayed behind, but were eventually absorbed by the more numerous locals.

Like most ancient invasions, the wandering Celts never amounted to more than a few tens of thousands of people when they moved into a new territory. But the warriors were fierce, and the women and children able to endure great hardship. The Celtic conquest of Gaul was much like later German conquests. The Celts were a small number (under ten percent) of the total population, but established administrative control over the conquered people and soon Celtic was the common language of the more numerous Ligurian, Basque, and Iberian peoples. Yet many of these subject peoples were still speaking their ancient languages when the Romans conquered Gaul. Latin then became the common language. It should be no surprise that yet another common language, French, grew out of this latinized melange of languages.

Like the Kurds of today, the Celts were disorganized because of the multiplicity of clans, tribes and dialects. Only a major outside threat could unite them. The Romans were one such threat, and after centuries of skirmishing and sundry wars, Julius Caesar finally subdued the Celts in France with several years of hard campaigning during the 1st Century BC. The Celts had momentarily united to oppose Caesar, and the Romans marveled at their success against huge Celtic armies. But the Romans were better organized and led. Rome enslaved up to a million Celts (out of a total population of five millions) and killed hundreds of thousands during the conquest that crushed all resistance.

Many Celts fled to Britain and Ireland. Here they found sparsely inhabited lands (some 400,000 people in England and Wales at the time), inhabited by a mixture of ancient peoples (related to the Picts) and Celts who had wandered over earlier. Soon, the Celtic culture became dominant in England. When Rome conquered Britain in the 1st Century AD, they found the population largely Celtic, with the more ancient Picts holding out far to the north in Scotland.

The Romans were only in Britain for a little over three centuries before their empire collapsed. Romanized Celtic culture survived in many places, particularly Wales, while a more purely Celtic tradition survived in Scotland. The Picts, another Liguran people, were gradually absorbed by their Celtic allies. The Romans never tried to conquer Scotland, a poor area which never supported more than 100,000 people during this period. A principal occupation of the "Scots" was raiding the wealtheir Roman lands to the south and most Roman military activity in Britian was against the Pict and Celtic tribes in Scotland. The Romanized Celts in Britain sometimes rebelled, or at least a a few of them did. Until the Romans withdrew the last of their legions in the early 5th Century (to deal with the Germans, and civil war), the Romans always had the upper hand. This should come as no surprise. The Romans were supreme organizers and managed to keep up to 60,000 trained soldiers on duty in Britain. No one was able to repeat this feat until near the end of the Medieval period.

After the Romans left Britain, the Germans began coming in, the Angles, the Jutes, and the Saxons, wild fellows from northwestern Germany After a century or so, eastern Britain was controlled by these Germans, who were much less civilized than their cousins who overran the rest of the Roman Empire. More Celts fled to Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and Brittany. These four areas became the final redoubts of Celtic language and culture into the 20th century.

The Basques are the last of the Iberians. Although many Celts moved into Spain, the Iberians proved a tougher opponent than the Ligurians in France. Moreover, the Romans gained control of Spain during the 2nd Century BC, but never completely romanized the Iberian tribes. When the Germanic Visigoths overran Spain in the 4th and 5th Centuries they set up an impressive kingdom, building on the Roman base with a minimum of fuss. But they weren't as good organizers as the Romans, and in 711 were unable to prevent the Muslims from overruning Spain.

The Muslim armies invading Spain were led by the Amazigh peoples. These folks were called "Berber" by the Greeks and Romans. In other words, they were called "barbarians" (meaning not necessarily uncivilized, but definately foreigners) because they were not Greek or Roman. The Berbers called themselves Amazigh and were pagans until coverted to Christianity or Judaism in the late Roman period. In the late 7th century they first resisted, and then embraced Islam. The Amazigh came from the Atlas mountain area of North Africa and many were fair skinned and blue eyed. How they ended up in North Africa thousands of years ago is anyones guess. The Islamic conquest of Spain initiated an on-again, off-again centuries long struggle between the remnants of the old Visigothic kingdom (perched precariously in the Pyrennes) and the Iberian Muslims for control of the real estate. By the 13th Century the Christians were decided in the asendency, although the Muslims still held Granada, in the south. Meanwile, fair skinned German and the blue eyed Amazigh warriors, along with the swarthy, brown eyed Ligurians (except for the Basques) turned into Spanish speakers. Spanish, of course, is another one of those languages that evolved out of all those local Latin dialects.

The Basques were a mountain dwelling people, and that may account for their cultural survival. They tended to keep to themselves and the Celts, Romans, Germans, and Moslems had no compelling reason to go up into the mountains after them, except at their own risk (Charlemagne's heroic champion Roland died in battle against the Basques). Thus the last of the truly ancient languages of Europe survives. During the Medieval years, the Basques were a power to be contended with. Many Basques lived under the rule of the kings of Navarre, who, prudently enough, usually knew how to speak Basque. The local nobility had a lot of Basque blood and the Basque mountaineers were known as fierce warriors who were better befriended than made into enemies.

http://www.hyw.com/books/history/Celts__B.htm

Categories

· Crime

· Currency

· Democracy

· Economy

· Education

· Energy

· Environment

· Geography

· Government

· Health

· Identification

· Introduction

· Labor

· Language

· Media

· Military

· People

· Religion

· Sports

· Transportation

Encyclopedia: Basques

The Basques are an indigenous people who inhabit parts of both Spain and France. They are found predominantly in four provinces in Spain and three in France. This area is to be found around the western edge of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay.

Besides Spanish or French, a minority of Basques speak their own language, Euskara, which is not only distinct from French and Spanish, but utterly different from every other language in Europe and the world. Most Europeans speak an Indo-European tongue, with some Finno-Ugric and Turkic (also known as Altaic) speakers in the east.

The Basque language, however, belongs its own entire category and is utterly distinct from every other language in the world. Spanish language was greatly influenced by Euskara, particularly in the vowel set.

The Basques are unique in Europe not only for their language. Investigations of Basque blood types has found that there are far more Basques with type O blood than in the general European population. Basques also have a comparatively lower chance of being either type A or type AB. Modern genetic techniques are also being applied to the Basques and it has been found that there is a great deal of difference between the Basques and their Spanish neighbours. There is less difference, however, with the population of neighbour Aquitania in France, perhaps a sign of past interbreeding. Even more intriguingly it could also be a sign that the ancient Aquitanian people and their now extinct language may have been closely related to the Basques.

There are also interesting social differences between the Basques and their neighbours. The Basque people have an unusually close attachment with their homes. A person's home is their family in Basqueland. Even if one does not still live there and has not for generations a Basque family is still known by the house in which it once lived. Common Basque surnames could translate as "top of the hill", or "by the river" all relating to the location of their ancestral home. This is interesting evidence for considering the Basques to be the only people who have always had a fixed and stable abode.

Another interesting fact is that Basque society has traditionally been very matriarchal, with lines of succession being from mother to daughter. This is another interesting contrast with other European societies, which are uniformly patriarchal.

In spite of this, until the Industrial Age, poor Basques (usually the younger sons) have emigrated to the rest of Spain or France and the Americas. Saint Francis Xavier and Conquistadors like Lope de Aguirre were Basque.

This unique and isolated people has attracted the interest of a great many linguists and historians trying to discover how and when it came to be where it is. The other non-Indo-European languages in Europe, Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian, and Turkish, were all brought in by invaders from Asia during recorded history. The Indo-European languages were introduced in the same way a few millennia earlier. When could the Basques have arrived?

The answer to this important question is still not known but the number of possibilities has been narrowed down. The first time we find Basque in writing is the late Middle Ages, which is not, however, evidence of their late arrival, for the Basques were already very well established by this point. Less direct evidence must thus be considered.

The most important sources are the classical writers, especially Strabo, who confirms that at about the birth of Jesus Christ the western part of the Pyrenees were inhabited by a people known as the Vasconnes. This is quite identifiable as one of a number of variations on the word Basque. Further evidence for these people being Euskara speaking Basques is provided when lists of names and place names are considered.

One theory of the origins for the Basques has them arriving along with the Indo-Europeans four thousand years ago. There have been antecedents to such an event. During the Germanic migrations that swept Europe after the fall of Rome, for instance, almost all the tribes were Indo-Europeans, except for the Alans (also known as the Sarmatians) who it now seems were probably Turkish speakers.

Furthermore it is now believed the Indo-Europeans began their invasion of Europe from a position just north of the Caspian Sea. South of this region is the Caucasus, a small and mountainous region home to some thirty separate languages, from two separate language groups of which there are no other relatives. Similarities between Basque and the Caucasian language groups have been advocated on a number of occasions. Could a group of Caucasians have joined the invasion of Europe by the Indo-Europeans that was departing just north of them?

It is not impossible but there is little to no evidence for this and much against it. The relationship between Basque and the Caucasian languages is vociferously denied by authors such as R.L. Trask who see no evidence of a connection, and most modern scholars agree with this view.

A second argument against the idea of the Basques arriving sometime around the arrival of the Indo-Europeans is archeological. There is no evidence of a new group of people arriving in Basqueland at this time. While the traditions changed, for instance the building of dolmens slowly faded out, these changes seem far more like a single evolving society than a replacement by new groups of people.

In fact the only evidence for an invasion of Basqueland dates from thousands upon thousands of years ago when Cro-Magnon people first arrived in Europe and superseded the Neanderthals. Could this have been when the Basques first arrived in Europe? The archeological evidence is shaky and it is difficult to assume there was never an invasion just because evidence for one has not yet been found. But so far the evidence is fairly clear, and even if the arrival of the Basques is postponed it is now quite likely that they arrived before the Indo-Europeans and thus that they are the oldest surviving people in Europe.

It is now believed by most scholars that the Basques have been in the same location for thousands of years, unmoved by any of the calamities of war, plague, or famine that destroyed all the other ancient civilizations of Europe. How could one small group of people survive when so many others were overwhelmed by the waves of invaders that have swept Europe? These questions can be dangerous and lead to speculation about racial superiority, a trap that a number of Basque writers have fallen into. In reality, however the reason the Basques have survived is mostly luck, they happened to be at the right place in the right time over and over again.

The Basques either chose their easily defended home in the Pyrenees or, what is more likely, were forced into it at some time in the past. It is quite common for mountainous regions to remain as bastions of an all but vanished group of people. When the Celts of Europe were overwhelemed by the Germanic hordes from Asia and the Roman Empire from the south the only areas left speaking Celtic were the isolated island of Ireland and a number of mountain bastions, most of which still retain Celtic speakers to the present day, These regions include Brittany in the northwest of France as well as Scotland and Wales in the British Isles. In these regions the Celtic language survived fifteen hundred years of isolation.

The Basque homeland is quite well suited to survival. Its low mountains are combined with dense forests and heavy vegetation to make the region almost impassable to outsiders (this didn't stop the Way of Saint James, connecting Santiago de Compostela and mainland Europe), but still temperate enough to support a large agricultural base. Despite this growth the soil is of much lower quality than the surrounding plains in Spain and France leaving the area a much less tempting target for invaders. For invaders bent on plunder the Basque areas have few reserves of precious metals, especially in comparison to the gold reserves to the west in Spain or to the wealth in Gascony just to the north of Basqueland. The Basques seem to have ended up the best locale for uninterrupted survival on the continent.

The first two known invasions the Basques survived were those of the Indo-Europeans and then the Celts. These two invasions occurred in prehistory and the secret of the Basque survival is only hinted at by limited archeological evidence.

For the next invasion of the region, however, there is much written evidence. The Romans entered the Iberian peninsula after their defeat of Carthage in the Punic wars. Roman rule quickly spread from the Carthaginian settlements along the Mediterranean coast through the rest of the peninsula. The northwest, including the Basque regions, were conquered by Pompey, after whom the large Basqueland city of Pamplona is named, in the first century BC.

The looseness of the Roman federation well suited the Basques, who retained their traditional laws and leadership within the Roman Empire. The poor region was little developed by the Romans and there is not much evidence of Romanization; this certainly contributed to the survival of the separate Basque language.

The lack of a large Roman presence was encouraged by the passivity of the Basques. Roman miltiary records show that there was never a need to fight insurrections in the Basque country. Basqueland never needed Roman garrisons to control the populace, unlike the surrounding Celtic areas.

On the contrary Basques were used by the Romans to guard their empire. There is a great deal of evidence for a Vasconne cohort. This cohort spent many years guarding Hadrians Wall in the north of Britain. Also at some time in its history it earned the title fida or faithful for some now forgotten service to the emperor.

There is some evidence for other Basque units serving in the empire as well. Even today nationalist Basques look back on the Roman Empire as an ideal time when, even though there was no Basque independence, the Basques were still able to have almost total internal control. As well as their lack of exposure to Roman garrisons, the Basque survival was also aided by the fact that Basqueland was a poor region. It had no unused cropland that could be used to settle Roman colonists and it had few commodities that would interest the Romans. Only a small number of Roman traders would have come to Basqueland. This isolation is what allowed the Basque language to survive and not be overwhelmed by Latin as occurred in so many other regions of the Empire.

If the Roman Empire had continued, however, there is a good chance the Basque language would have vanished. During the Roman period the territory where Basque was spoken slowly declined and by the end of the period it seems Basque had become limited to rural regions, while the major cities such as Pamplona were Romanized.

The history of Basqueland darkens, however, with the arrival of the Germanic peoples and the collapse of the Roman empire. Rather than being an isolated area in the centre of a large empire the Basques were placed at the border between the warring Visigothic and Frankish kingdoms. Basqueland became a very strategically important piece of territory desired by both sides.

At the same time the Basques lost their lifestyle, which was dependent on trade with the Roman Empire. These two changes transformed the Basques from being one of the most docile people in Europe into a group of dedicated warriors bent on survival. There are scattered reports from this period of presumed Basque brigands (in Latin, bagaudae) in Aquitania and Spain stealing those things which they used to be able to trade for.

Most of the confrontations with the Basques were, however, instigated by the outsiders. Both the Franks and Visigoths sent armies through Basqueland repeatedly during their long running war. While there are few records, armies of the day rarely treated the inhabitants of the lands they were passing through well. The Basqueland was probably repeatedly plundered for foodstuffs and fodder to maintain the armies.

The rugged Basque territory is ideal for banditry and it is not surprising that despite the oppresion by their neighbhours the Basques could still survive. Just as in every time of persecution in their history the Basques simply moved to the hills and held out there for many years.

The Basques also proved during this period that they could protect their homeland when the need arose despite the lack of central authority. After Charlemagne's Franks invaded northern Spain they returned home and en route pillaged the Basqueland, stripping it of any wealth they could find. The Basques came together with the Pamplona Muslims, however, and intercepted the Frankish army while it made its way through a mountain pass. Despite poor weaponry and fewer fighters the Basques destroyed much of the Frankish force. The Battle of the Roncesvalles Pass was the only major defeat Charlemagne suffered in his long career. These events were immortalized in the Chanson de Roland, an important piece of medieval verse.

Similar mobilizations by the Basques occurred just a few years later against the Islamic invaders who had seized all of Spain. The newly Christianized Basques put up stiff resistance and prevented Islamic penetration of their region for the entire period of the Caliphate.

The Basquelands were eventually divided between France and Spain after the Middle Ages, with most of the Basque population ending up in Spain, a situation which persists to this day. Until modern times the Basques lived peacefully in the separate nation states becoming renowned mariners. Basque sailors were some of the first Europeans to reach North America, and many early settlers in Canada and the United States were of Basque origin.

In 1937 the troops of the Autonomous Basque Government surrendered to the Italian allies of General Francisco Franco. Then one of the hardest periods of Basque history in Spain began. The Basques fought in the Spanish Civil War divided between the nationalist and leftist, siding with the Spanish Republic, and the Navarrese Carlist, siding with Franco forces. One of the greatest atrocities of this war was the bombing of Guernica, the traditional Biscayne capital, by German planes. Much of the city was destroyed and a great deal of Basque history was erased.

Once Franco won the war he began a dedicated effort to turn Spain into a uniform nation state. Franco introduced severe laws against all Spanish minorities in an effort to suppress their culture and language.

The backlash to these actions created a violent Basque separatist movement that has resulted in the deaths of about 800 people over the past 30 years. The separatist group responsible for most of the violence is known as Euskadi Ta Askatasuna or ETA. The end of the Franco regime saw an end to the suppression and a creation of an autonomous Basque region in Spain. ETA continues its actions, however, fighting for full independence and communism.

The current autonomous Basque area, known as Euskadi or País Vasco by its inhabitants, is composed of three provinces or territories: Araba-Alava, Bizkaia-Vizcaya and Gipuzkoa-Guipuzcoa. There are 2,123,000 people living in the Basque Country: Araba - 279,000 inh., Bizkaia - 1,160,000 inh. and Gipuzkoa - 684,000 inh. The most important cities are: Bilbo-Bilbao (Bizkaia), Donostia-San Sebastian (Gipuzkoa) and Gasteiz-Vitoria (Araba). There are two official languages: Basque and Spanish. 27 per cent of the people speak the Basque Language, but this number is increasing for the first time in many centuries.

Despite ETA and the crisis of heavy industries, the Basques have been doing remarkably well in recent years, emerging from persecution during the Franco regime with a strong and vibrant language and culture. For the first time in centuries the Basque language is expanding geographically led by large increases in the major urban centres of Pamplona, Bilbao, and Bayonne where only a few decades ago the Basque language had all but disappeared. The opening of the new Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is seen as a symbol of this revival.

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Basques

http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth1604/Basques.html

BASQUES IN THE SUSQUEHANNA VALLEY 2,500 YEARS AGO?

Back in the 1940s, Dr. W.W. Strong assembled about 400 inscribed stones from Pennsylvania's Susquehanna Valley. Called the Mechanicsburg Stones, they seemed to bear Phoenician characters -- at least Strong interpreted them as such. Naturally, Strong was ridiculed, for the Columbus-first dogma was dominant then. More recently, however, B. Fell claimed that the Mechanicsburg Stones are the work of Basque settlers circa 600 BC. The Basque theory has fared no better than the Phoenician. Now, a noted authority on the Basque language, Imanol Agire, has strongly supported Fell's conclusion that ancient Basques carved the stones.

(Anonymous; "Noted Basque Scholar Supports Claim That Mechanicsburg Stones Were Cut by Ancient Basques," NEARA Journal, 15:67, 1981.)

Reference. For other enigmatic inscriptions, see our Handbook Ancient Man. This volume is described here.

Inscription on one of the Mechanicsberg Stones

Other Sites of Interest

SIS. Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy.
Lobster. The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc)
Homeworking.com. Free resource for people thinking about working at home.
ABC Dating and Personals. For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free.

http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf015/sf015p01.htm

Y-chromosome DNA haplotypes in Basques.

Lucotte G, Hazout S.

One Y-specific DNA polymorphism (p49/ TaqI) was studied in a sample of 97 French Basques and compared with those found in 7 other French, Iberian, and Italian populations. A particularly high frequency (72.2%) of Y-haplotype XV was observed in Basques, compared to values (mean of 41%) obtained in other Western Europeans. Basques were also characterized by virtual absence, or presence at a low level, of the South or Near Eastern haplotypes XII, VII, and VIII. Considered together, these results confirm that Basques are a very ancient European population which has had little previous contact with the Neolithics.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?holding=npg&cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8642617&dopt=Abstract

The Basques say their fishermen and whalers regularly visited the New

> World at least a century before Columbus. This claim first appeared in a

> French book published in the 1640's.

> The first and still best-known evidence for an early Basque presence

> in the New World came in 1977, when Canadian archeologists unearthed

> whaling stations and dived to explore three sunken galleons at Red Bay,

> Labrador. The finds dared from the mid-1500',s, when Basque whaling

> ships regularly undertook a perilous 2000 -mile voyage from their home

> ports to the Grand Banks. The prize: Whale oil.

> According to University of Amsterdam linguist Peter Bakker, Basque

> control of this trade in the 1500's can only be compared with the oil

> monopoly of the modern OPEC nations.

> At Ile-aux-Basques Laval  University archaeologist Laurier Turgeon

> located and excavated the foundations of massive stone ovens used to

> turn whale blubber into oil. This summer he discovered the first hard

> proof of contacts between Basque whalers and the Iroquis: fragments

> of Iroquis pottery in the same deposits as glass trade beads and

> Basque pottery made in south-western France.

> There are other hints of prolonged contact between Basques and

> North American tribes. Peter Bakker found a 1710 document alleging

> that "Eskimos" and Basques had developed a special trading language.

> He discovered a number of words without roots in tribal language, but

> with startling similarities to Basque words.

> He was eaven more surprised to find that the traditional Basque

> national emblem, a swastika-like design called a lauburu, appears

> in the needlework and emblazoned on the canoes of Micmac indians

> at least as far back as the 17th century. The extensive contacts with

> the tribes suggests that the Basques were involved in trading furs

> as well as whale oil. But just when did the contact start ?

> Recently historian Robert Delort of Switzerland's University of

> Geneva discovered remarkable evidence implying that the New

> World fur trade may go back long before the whaling expeditions

> and, for that matter, Columbus. Delort has unearthed British customs

> records indicating that Basque traders landed a heavy volume of

> beaver pelts at English ports from 1380 to 1433. Since north European

> beaver population were already nearly extinct by that time, Delort

> speculates the source is more likely to have been the New World

> (the pelts were delivered in rolls--the way Quebec Ondians stored

> them). Delort emphasizes, however, that his conclusion is preliminary.

> Certainly the idea is not far-fetched. An Icelandic chronicle from 1412

> mentions the presence of Basque whalers in Iceland, a testimony

> backed up by two contemporary maps depicting Basque whaling ships

> there. One day perhaps a new find in Labrador will finally confirm the

> Basques' proud boast about beating Columbus.

> --------------------------------------------

> Other articles I have gathered relevant to this are:

> Peter Bakker_Two Basque Loanwords in Micmac_International

> journal of American linguistics.

> Jose Ignacio Hualde (University of Illinois)_Icelandic Basque pidgin_

> Dipuctaci 'on de Guip' uzcoa 1991.

> Peter Bakker_The mysterious link between Basque and Micmac art_

> European review of Native American studies 5:1 1991.

> Also have a look at this url from the New York Times:

> http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/kurlansky-cod.html

The Basques, among other things, were the first European whalers. In the Middle Ages, it seems a particular whale type now known as the Right Whale was very common in the Bay of Biscay. We now know these creatures as Right Whales, because they were the "right" whales for later fishermen--they were slow swimmers, and their bodies floated. This made them favored prey in the later 18-19th Century whaling era.

Around the 11th Century, many of the Basque communities along the coast found that these whales were very profitable to slaughter when one occasionally was beached. The blubber could be boiled down for lighting fuel, and the meat could be eaten. These accidental strandings were so advantageous, the Basques took to taking boats out to try to drive whales into shallow water. If noise and threatening advances forced the whale to beach, it could be killed with lances.

By the 12th Century, this was a highly organized business. Stone watchtowers were built, and when a whale was sighted, the alarm would be sounded, and everyone would head out after it. As many as 20 villages would combine to slay a single whale, sharing the rewards, except for the tongue, which went to the church as a favored delicacy.

This became so important that at least six Basque towns have whales or whaling as a feature of their coats of arms. Later, the whales were hunted more actively, and would be killed at sea with harpoons. In fact, harpoon is from the Basque word arpoi. Several other whaling terms have Basque origins.

The Basques began searching far out at sea for the whales. Whether this was because the whales became scarce in the Biscay area, or simply because whaling was so profitable isn't clear. The Basques almost completely monopolized European whaling until the 1500s. The only other area in the North Atlantic where Right Whales are found frequently is in the Western Atlantic, near the coast of Newfoundland. Apparently the Basques found this area, but kept it a closely guarded secret. At first, even whales killed at sea were towed to shore to be cut up, and have the fat boiled, but later this was done at sea, despite the obvious hazard of fire on wooden ships. The Basque also began fishing for Cod, and salting it at sea during this time.

Eventually the British and Dutch got into whaling. But even they usually had Basques as "experts" on their ships for many years. Eventually, many Basques gave up whaling in favor of privateering, which they found more profitable.

The only other people who were doing this early on where the Norse. The colony in Iceland was particularly active and Bergen, Norway, was early on a major whaling center. But they never were as important commercially as the Basques.

L O S V A S C O S
	Ygartua Basque Collection	Click here to read in Spanish
The Basques
	The Basques are people of unknown origins for we do not know where they came from and their language is largely different than other known languages. They were in place when the Romans and later the Moors conquered Spain. Ther are gathered on the western end of the Pyrenees both in Southern France and Northern Spain and we can assume that at some ancient date they sought the mountains as a place of survival from a greater or larger enemy. Fiercely independent and proud they seek to maintain their identity and their language. This trait is portrayed by Picasso's famous painting Guernika which is the capital of the Basque country, and which was destroyed by Franco during the civil war. The only suggestion as to the origin of the Basque people comes from that famous American clairvoyant, Edgar Casey, who in one of his books includes the Basques along with the Egyptians and Aztecs as survivors from the lost continent of Atlantas.	Farmers, fishermen, sheepherders, known for their endurance and ruggedness, proud of their individuality and their good natured comraderie. To them freedom is more than a word - it is a symbol of their very existance. It was only after years of defiance and struggle against Franco's dictatorial government that they have ragained some token of their former independence and now entertain local autonomy. A short distance from the historical city of Guernika are the Caves of Santimamine where obscure drawings and other relics indicate an ancient civilization. There is evidence of a Basque settlement in Newfoundland dating back before Columbus.

Basques, Phoenicians, and Etruscans

Since the western Mediterranean lands have changed little racially since the end of the Bronze Age, it may perhaps be foroiven us if we break the continuity of the present chapter, as was done earlier in the cases of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece, to discuss, at this point, the origins and racial characteristics of certain non-Indo-European-speaking peoples who are or were in later times known by specific names - the Basques, the Phoenicians (as Carthaginians), and the Etruscans.

In regard to the Basques, it has been observed that the skeletons from dolmens of Guipuzcoa, probably of Early Metal Age, resemble those of the modern Euskarians of the same province, in stature, in head size and form, and in characteristic facial peculiarities.⁵¹ Since the northern shore of Spain, in the country occupied by the Basques since the beginning of history, is rich in metal ores and was a favorite haunt of Copper and Bronze Age sea migrants, it is very likely that a numerically strong western Asiatic element, including both Megalithic and Dinaric types, became a permanent factor in the local population. When we come to discuss the physical anthropology of living Basques, the probability of such an influence will be of assistance.

The second people, the Phoenicians, who established their principal colony at Carthage at the end of the second millennium B.C., and posted trading garrisons at various points on the North African coast, both on the Mediterranean and Atlantic sides, also settled along the eastern coast of Spain, where they founded the city of Cartagena. Except for the Greeks, they formed the last of the groups to migrate westward from the eastern Mediterranean by sea, but the first to do so in full historical light.

The physical type of the Phoenicians is well known from the skeletal remains found in tombs at Carthage.⁵² A series of 117 skulls, of which 68 are male, belong for the most part to one characteristic type; dolicho- to mesocephalic, with the cranial index at 75; fairly long vaulted, and hence moderately broad; with a very low vault, a moderately broad forehead, a short face, high orbits, and a narrow, projecting nose which often springs directly from the frontal bone with little or no nasion depression. These skulls are in many ways similar to the Megalithic or Long Barrow type of the preceding millennium; but, as is to be expected in view of their late eastern Mediterranean origin, show modifications toward a shortening and widening of the vault, and a beaking of the nose.

A few related hrachycephals, of Dinaric form, are incidental to this type, while a number of less characteristic skulls, with lower orbits and less prominent, wider noses, may be those of North African natives. The Carthaginians were apparently rather tall, with a mean male stature of 168 cm. The Greek evidence, already quoted, indicates that they were brunet.

There can be no doubt that the majority of the Carthaginians who were buried in these tombs were either the descendants of seafarers from Palestine and Syria, or at least immigrants from the east of similar race. Nine skulls of important men, taken from elaborate stone sarcophagi, belong to exactly the same type as the majority of the others, except that these representatives of the privileged classes had larger heads in all or most dimensions than those of the masses. This correlation between size and status, or size and opportunity, is a familiar human trait wherever there are social and nutritional differences, and has no coincident racial significance. Single Phoenician skulls from two points in the western Mediterranean, Melilla in the Moroccan Rif, and Ibiza in Spain,⁵³ conform exactly to the standard set by the Carthaginians.

The last of the three non-Indo-European speaking ethnic groups, the Etruscan, probably came to Italy as early as the first quarter of the tenth century B.C. Another wave is said to have arrived in the eighth century. The colonists apparently kept up contacts with their homeland until about 650 A.D. This homeland, according to the classical tradition, maintained by all Greek and Roman historians from Herodotus to Pliny, was Lydia in Asia Minor. That this tradition is accurate is the belief of most modern classical scholars.⁵⁴

The cranial evidence from Etruscan tombs⁵⁵ substantiates the belief that these non-Indo-European, non-Semitic speakers were typical examples of the earlier Bronze Age population of the eastern Mediterranean. As with the earlier el Argar people of Spain, a mesocephalic mean for the cranial index covers the presence of pronounced long heads and round heads, with the two extremes, in this case, forming about equal proportions. Actually, the metrical characteristics of the two series are much alike, but the Etruscan skulls were a little larger, which is not surprising, for the el Argar crania were for the most part rather small.

The Etruscan skulls are notably smooth in surface relief, with little in the way of browridges; the side walls of the vaults, seen from above, are not parallel, as with the longer Mediterranean forms, but converging, with the greatest breadth in the parietals and a narrow forehead; the orbits are high and rounded, and the nose narrow. The Etruscans, with a typically Near Eastern cranial form, resemble both the Cappadocian type found in the Hittite period at Alishar, and the planoccipital brachycephals which appeared in the Bronze Age cemeteries of Cyprus. By Roman times these two varieties had blended, to a large extent, into a variable mesocephalic form, to which the Phoenicians as well largely belonged.

It would be difficult to overemphasize the importance of the migrations of eastern Mediterranean peoples by sea to Italy, Spain, and the islands between these two peninsulas in protohistoric as well as in prehistoric times. Especially in Spain and Italy, large numbers of peoples immigrated, who added, to the basic Mediterranean population of Neolithic origin, Near Eastern elements which may still be discerned among Italians and Spaniards today. The debt of the Romans to the Etruscans, genetically as well as culturally, was especially great.

ff.

P a u l a t F i e s t a

http://perso.club-internet.fr/jmglaria/Pbasque-les_noms_.htm

Basques

Les noms basques Clé de voûte de l'organisation sociale basque, l'"etxe" (la maison) est à l'origine du nom. Si "deitura" (deitu : appeler) est le nom de famille par rapport à "izen" (izen : être) qui est le prénom, le nom de la maison reste attaché à une personne pour se confondre dans le temps avec l'état civil.

La maison elle-même se distingue d'un lieu précis faisant référence à une montagne, un rocher, un point d'eau ou une forêt ou tout endroit caractéristique.

Ainsi nous aurons : Bidarte (bide : chemin, arte : au milieu, sous entendu la maison. Bidarte : La maison au milieu du chemin) - Etxegaray (etxe : la maison, garai : haut - Etxegaray : La maison haute) - Etxe berri (etxe : maison, berri : nouveau - Etxeberri : la maison neuve) - Berrondo (berro : buisson, ondo : près de) la maison près des buissons.

Certains noms font référence à des animaux : Epherre (eper : perdrix), Otchoa (oso : le loup). Sans doute des surnoms attestant d'un caractère sont demeurés comme patronymes.

Les noms de ville ou de montagne font aussi référence à des sites caractéristiques ou à la présence d'animaux. Ainsi nous rencontrons Bayonne (Ibaiona : "Ibai" : rivière, "ona" : bonne) Biarritz ("Bi" : deux "harritz" : rocher) Baigorri (" bai" : rivière, "gorri" : rouge).

La montagne de l'Otsamunho près de Baigorri, fut vraisemblablement en des temps anciens fréquentée par des loups ("oso" : le loup, "muino" : colline) et celle de l'Artzamendi près d'Itsasu, par des ours : ("Artza" : ours, "mendi" : montagne).

On essaiera de retenir le nom pittoresque de l'arète rocheuse située toujours au-dessus d'Itsasu : Athekaitzetakomalgorrak (littéralement : "les hautes pentes du passage dangereux"). Avec le temps, les noms et patronymes ont subi fatalement quelques altérations dues essentiellement à l'apport du roman (gascon, espagnol, français).

Basques (Vascos, Euskadunak, Aquitanian) are an ancient people inhabiting the Pyrennes Mountains and Spanish-French coastline along the Bay of Biscay. They are completely unrelated, either genetically or linguistically, to the Celts, Romans, Germanic, Gaelic, Goth, Moor, or other tribes that later entered (and now dominate) the Iberian Peninsula. Many Spanish and French families have Basque surnames, leading to the popular misconception that Basques are related to the Spanish or French. Not true, except for intermarriage.

Anthropologists classify Basques as proto-European, meaning they were there first (in situ) and their origin is unknown. Thus, their language is not Indo-European (who originated outside of Europe) and is unrelated to any other language. Other pre-Indo-European lanuages include Iberian, Etruscan, Magyar (Hungarian) and Finno-Ugric (Finnish). The first two languages are dead, and while Basque and the remaining two share a few common words, linguists attribute this to a coincidence rather than a possible relationship.

There are many more Basques living outside of Basque Country (pais vasco, Bizkaia) than in the Basque Country itself. This is because geographical, political, and cultural forces, such as the French Revolution and Spanish Civil War, led many Basques to seek opportunity elsewhere.

The first significant migration of Basques was with the Spanish galleon as it conquered the New World and supported an important trade route to Manila. While the Spanish soldiers (leatherjackets) that accompanied the conquistadors were Catalonian, most of the sailors (and captains and navigators) with the fleet, and many of the missionaries, were Basque. Basque surnames (Aguirre, Ochoa, Salazar, etc.) are scattered throughout the old Spanish empire.

Basques, many of whom were seafarers, made up much of the Spanish fleet during the days of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, the Caribbean, and the Far East. Basque whalers were also known to venture across the Atlantic and as far as North America before Columbus. Subjugated by Spanish and French monarchs after the fall of the Roman Empire, many Basques converted to Catholicism (St Francis Xavier and Ignatius of Loyola come to mind) and assimilated into their occupying societies, but there was also a significant migration to North and South America.

Outside of Spain and France, the largest Basque populations are in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and the United States (mostly in Nevada, Idaho, and California).

The Basque language survived the Franco years and today is widely spoken in the Basque Country of Spain, and to a lesser extent in France. The U.S. is the only other country where Basques actively use their language.

[ Home ] [ Up ]

http://erazone.com/family/basque.htm

Gorka Donatien URTIZBEREA

Gorka Donatien URTIZBEREA
(1472-1515)
Fondateur du port de
LARROTXELA

De tous temps, les rites liés à la naissance dans les peuplades primitives ont fasciné les anthropologues. Déjà en 1773 le Baron QUESNEL De MEYNARD consacrait à ce sujet le troisième tome de son "ENCYCLOPEDIE DES SAUVAGES" et dévoilait alors un aspect peu connu - et maintenant totalement oublié - des traditions basques d'avant l'expension du christianisme dans le pays.
C'est à l'occasion de ses fréquents séjours dans le château des Grammont à Bidache (Basses Pyrénées) que cet auteur libertin Lillois se pencha avec attention sur les mystères du peuple Basque.
Durant près de 12 ans, il glana auprès des autochtones de la région une somme considérable de précieux témoignages et ce sont ces derniers qui firent le principal interêt de ses ouvrages devenus aujourd'hui malheureusement introuvables.

D'après François-Marie QUESNEL De MEYNARD, avant le XIV ème siècle, avait cours au Pays Basque une très singulière coutume qui avait comme amusante conséquence de peupler et décimer les villages basques à proportions quasi-égales.
À cette époque lointaine en effet, dans la majorité des foyers ruraux du pays, il était d'usage de célébrer la naissance d'un nouveau-né mâle d'une manière qui, encore une fois, distingue fortement le peuple basque de tous les autres de la planète.
En ces temps là, lorsque l'enfant paraissait - et si c'était un garçon uniquement - toute la famille concernée s'ébranlait en un joyeux cortège et partait au son des flutes et des grelots sacrifier le premier voisin! Peu importait d'ailleurs la manière de la mise à mort, puisque des spécialistes ont récemment admis que la pendaison, la crémation ou la lapidation furent indifféremment utilisées pour célébrer la fête.
Afin que le pauvre homme (le voisin) ne se doutât de rien durant les mois qui précédaient la naissance, la femme enceinte avait bien pris soin de dissimuler sous de larges étoffes et oripeaux divers la silhouette bien évidemment rebondie de sa grossesse.

Bien sûr, il y eu des voisins plus perspicaces que d'autres ou des voisins informés par une indiscrétion de la famille. Ceux-là, quand ils subodoraient ou étaient avertis d'une naissance imminente dans la ferme d'à côté, ils s'enfuyaient le jour même très vite et très loin sur des navires à rames en partance pour l'inconnu, l'Espagne, la Chine ou Arcachon...
Ainsi, bien avant le génois Christophe COLOMB, bien avant le portugais VASCO de GAMA, le premier européen à découvrir une contrée lointaine fut le basque Gorka Donatien URTIZBEREA (1472-1515) originaire d'Ekharritz dans la vallée d'Arranomendi...
Alors qu'il était en train de cueillir des abricots, Gorka URTIZBEREA fut alerté par le bruit des grelots qui tintinabulaient dans la pénombre naissante. Il enfourcha prestement son porc (le cochon basque noir à poil dru faisait souvent office de monture pour les paysans pauvres de l'époque) et ne parvint à échapper à la liesse baptismale que grâce à l'aptitude de son animal à galoper au travers des denses fougères de la montagne basque.
Quinze ans plus tard Gorka URTIZBEREA fondera un port sur l'Atlantique nord qu'il appellera LARROTXELA (l'actuelle ville de La Rochelle).

Hélas pour la science, cette malicieuse coutume basque de sacrifier le premier voisin à l'occasion d'un heureux évènement sera interdite par le Pape URBAIN VIII et l'église catholique lors du concile de Vains-en-Belgique en 1518. Cette décision eut pour effet de donner un coup d'arrêt brutal à la grande époque des explorateurs basques et lança la mode plus conviviale des dragées au sucre encore en vigueur de nos jours.

MUSIQUE ET DANSES BASQUES :

La musique au pays basque :

Bien que de développée dans l'atmosphère européenne, la musique basque est typique.
Cette musique utilise en majorité des sonorités mineures et d'anciennes échelles diatoniques. De plus, le rythme y est varié.
La plus pratiquée des disciplines est sans doute le chant.
On trouve au pays basque les instruments de musique suivants:

· Le txistu est une flûte droite à trois trous ayant deux variantes : le txistu et le xirula. Le xirula, plus court, a un son plus aigu que le txistu. Cet instrument permet au musicien de jouer d'une main du txistu et de s'accompagner de l'autre à l'aide du soinua ou du ttun-ttun (instruments de percussion décrits ci-dessous).

	· L'attabal, ou danbolina ou encore soinua sont des petits tambours à la sonorité de caisse claire. Comme précédemment expliqué, les joueurs de txistu les utilisent d'une main pour s'accompagner. On les trouve également dans les bandas.

· Le ttun-ttun est un tambour accordé composé d'une longue caisse de résonance en bois sur laquelle sont tendues six cordes. A l'aide d'une baguette, le musicien va frapper les cordes alors que de l'autre main il joue du txistu.

	· La gaïta, ou dultzaina, est un hautbois de la taille d'une flûte dont le son puissant et strident rappelle celui de la cornemuse. On retrouve le même instrument en Languedoc, Provence, catalogne et dans les pays Arabes.

	· La txanbela est une petite gaïta (voir ci-dessus) très utilisée en Soule.
	· Le triki est un petit accordéon diatonique originaire d'Italie. Cet instrument a été mêlé à d'autres instruments d'origine basque dans des ensembles nommés trikitixa, ainsi, peut à peut, le triki a pris le nom de trikitixa. Le triki est souvent accompagné par le panderoa (décrit ci-dessous).
	Voir photos en haut de page.
	· Le panderoa ou tambour basque, est un simple tambourin qui accompagne la plu part du temps le trikitixa et l'alboka.
	Voir photo de gauche en haut de page.
	· Le txalaparta est un instrument de percussion constitué d'une ou plusieurs poutres posées sur des tréteaux. Le, ou les, musiciens vont frapper ces poutres à l'aide de bâtons.

	· L'alboka est une sorte de clarinette a double corne inégales, fixées sur un support de bois. Un tuyau possède cinq trous alors que l'autre n'en a que trois. Le musicien souffle dans la petite corne munie d'une anche. l'alboka est souvent accompagné par le panderoa (décrit précédemment).

	· Le supriñu est un des plus ancien instrument à vent. Il est fabriqué avec de l'écorce de noisetier qui est retiré en bandes et enroulées en forme de cône. Une pointe d'aubépine aide à fermer le cône. Deux trous sont percés dans le cône permettant de jouer différentes notes. Sa fabrication débute au cours du printemps et on arrive à le conserver jusque vers fin juillet.

	· Le musukitara est un petit instrument au son relativement faible. En actionnant la languette devant la bouche, un son est produit et suivant la position des lèvres, différentes notes peuvent être obtenues. Le nom musukitara veut en fait dire "guitare de bouche".

Les danses basques :

La danse fait partie de la culture basque. Ce n'est pas seulement du folklore, c'est également une tradition ancestrale perpétuée au long des générations.
Grâce à de nombreux groupes folkloriques et associations, la danse basque connaît aujourd'hui un fort renouveaux au sein de la population.
On dénombre plus de 200 différentes danses basque, voici quelques unes d'entre elles:

· La plus célèbre des danses basque est sans doute le fameux fandango. D'origine espagnole, le fandango est basé sur un rythme de valse et se danse avec les bras en l'air. On peut distinguer différentes variantes de fandango suivant les provinces dans lesquelles on se trouve.

· On trouve également la danse des sauts basques, où des danseurs forment une ronde et exécutent différents sauts et pas plus ou moins complexes. On rencontre un grand nombre de sauts basque mais le plus populaire de nos jours est sans doute les mutxiko.

· L'ezpata Dantza est une danse où deux groupes s'affrontent avec des épées. Dans le même style, on trouve la danse des bâtons et la danses des arceaux.

· La danse des kaskarot est elle originaire du Labourd les danseurs sont costumés et leurs costumes portent des grelots.

· La mascarade souletine est comme son nom l'indique une mascarade se déroulant chaque dimanche et allant de village en village à travers la Soule.

* La mascarade est une série de danses où plusieurs danseurs ont des rôles et fonctions bien précis. Parmi ces danseurs on distingue deux groupes différents avec les bons (biens habillés qui représentent les personnages locaux) et les mauvais (mal habillés et grotesques représentent les étrangers).
On trouve ainsi du coté de bons, habillés en rouge, les personnages suivants:

- Le txerreroa qui est le gardien de porc armé d'un bâton fini par une queue de cheval.
- Le gatüzain représente le chat et est armé d'une paire de ciseaux en bois.
- La kantiniera qui est la cantinière.
- Le zamalzaina est un homme-cheval (on retrouve ce même personnage en Provence, Italie et Roumanie).
- L'enseñaria est le porteur de drapeau.
- Le jauna et l'anderea représentent l'homme et la femme.
- Laborari eta laborarisa représentent le paysan et la paysanne.
- Le marexalak représente le maréchal ferrant.
- Les kükülleroak qui sont les futurs danseurs.
- Les kerestuak qui sont les castreurs de chevaux.

Les mauvais eux ont pour rôle de se moquer du village dans lequel ils se déplacent, ils sont habillés en noir et on trouve les personnages suivants:

- Les xorrotxak qui sont les remouleurs et qui on la charge d'affûter l'épée du seigneur.
- Les buhameak qui sont des bohémiens.
- Les kauterak représentent les chaudronniers.
- Kabana est le chef alors que Pitxu est l'apprenti comique.

La principale danse exécutée durant la mascarade est celle du godalet dantza, où les exécutants dansent autour d'un verre rempli de vin.

· La santibate, ou cavalcade se déroule généralement en période de carnaval. Il s'agit en fait d'un grand défilé déguisé, ou comme pour la mascarade, on peut y trouver des personnages particuliers tels que:

- Les makilari (tambours majors), qui ouvrent le cortège en faisant tourner et en lançant un bâton.
- Les zigantea ou géants qui sont d'immenses personnages construits sur un châssis de bois et des hommes les portent en les faisant danser au son de la gaïta.
- Les joaldunak sont des hommes couverts d'une peau de mouton avec des cloches attachées dans le dos. Ils défilent dans les rues en remuant leur cloches et sans jamais s'arrêter (à fin de chasser les mauvais esprits).
- Les zapurrak ou sapeurs qui portent un tablier de cuir, un bonnet de grognard et une hache.
- Les garriak qui font la quête auprès des personnes venues assister à la cérémonie. Cet argent récolté servira ensuite à assurer le repas des participants.
- On peut également trouver les zaldikoak, qui, montés sur des chevaux, assurent la quête aux fenêtres des maisons.
- Les banderriak qui sont les porteurs de drapeaux.
- La basandere ou femme sauvage et dont le visage est voilé.

http://gofree.indigo.ie/~janoty/euskadi/musiq.htm

Les Basques sont cousins des Celtes

La génétique vient au secours d'un des mystères de l'Histoire.

. Les Basques, ce peuple à cheval entre la France et l'Espagne, dont la langue, si différente de toutes les autres langues européennes, rend leurs origines si mystérieuses, sont liés aux Celtes, révèle une analyse génétique.

Les Celtes sont les plus anciens habitants connus de l'Europe: ce sont eux qui, sous différents noms -dont les Gaulois- occupaient le territoire il y a des milliers d'années, avant les invasions du Ve siècle -Germains, Francs, et autres Vandales. Aujourd'hui, leurs descendants sont essentiellement regroupés en Bretagne, au Pays de Galles et en Irlande.

Or, les Gallois et les Celtes irlandais sont des cousins génétiques des Basques, vient de révéler une équipe dirigée par David Goldstein, du Collège universitaire de Londres. Une révélation qui, en fait, confirme une intuition souvent bien présente chez les historiens

L'étude s'est penchée sur le chromosome Y, transmis de père en fils, et curieusement, cette étude avait d'abord commencé en comparant le bagage génétique de ces populations celtes et des populations norvégiennes actuelles -dans le but de mieux mesurer l'héritage viking laissé dans les îles britanniques.>

L'analyse ayant permis de voir que ce bagage génétique celte montrait peu de variations, il fut alors décidé qu'il serait relativement facile de leur trouver des cousins -et les Basques se sont rapidement retrouvés en tête de liste. "Pour ce qui est du chromosome Y, résume David Goldstein, les populations celtes se révèlent statistiquement difficiles à distinguer des Basque."

"Nous en concluons que ces deux populations réflètent l'Europe d'avant l'agriculture.