Prehistory History of the Basques

although little known prehistory of basques before period of roman occupation owing difficulty in identifying evidence specific cultural traits, mainstream view today basque area shows signs of archaeological continuity since aurignacian period.

many basque archaeological sites, including cave dwellings such santimamiñe, provide evidence continuity aurignacian times down iron age, shortly before roman occupation. possibility therefore cannot ruled out of @ least of same people having continued inhabit area thirty millennia.

some scholars have interpreted basque words aizto knife , aizkora axe containing aitz stone , take evidence basque language dates stone age. however, stone abandoned in chalcolithic, , aizkora (variants axkora, azkora) considered loaned latin asciola; cf. spanish azuela, catalan aixol.

genetic evidence

a high concentration of rh- among basques, have highest level worldwide, had been interpreted suggestive of antiquity , lack of admixture of basque genetic stock. in 1990s luigi luca cavalli-sforza published findings according 1 of main european autosomal components, pc 5, shown typically basque trait believed have receded owing migration of eastern peoples during neolithic , metal ages. x chromosome microsatellites seem point basques being direct descendants of prehistoric western europeans, having highest percent of western european genes found @ high levels among neighbor populations, direct descendants of same people. however, mitochondrial dna have cast doubts on theory.