Two new altars with Vasconic deities in Navarra/Nafarroa
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Abstract
The presence of onomastics of Basque origin in Aquitaine has been proven since the end of the 19th century by a large number of personal and divine names, but only in recent decades has the Basque territory south of the Pyrenees provided onomastic material related to the Basque language. Together with personal names, such as those attested in the Lerga inscription, there is a small group of names of divinity, located in the central and western part of Navarre, which present lexical, graphic-phonetic and morphological characteristics similar to those known in Aquitaine and which can be related to the Basque language.
In this article, two recently discovered votive altars (Zaldua 2022) are published. Both are dedicated to two Basque divinities which were already previously known: Larahi and Losae (in their attested forms), and come from two places in the Salado river basin not far from each other: Riezu/Errezu and Anitz, Lerate, respectively. Although the theonyms are clearly legible, the names of the dedicators have been damaged, so they have been restored taking into account the textual circumstances of the inscription as well as the onomastic parallels compatible with the preserved remains: Agustina or Augustina is proposed as the dedicator of the altar from Riezu, and either Paenius, -a, or Dafnus, -e, is proposed for the dedicator of the altar from Anitz.
Unlike the majority of Basque divinities whose epigraphic documentation is limited to one place, these two divinities are the ones with the greatest geographical expansion. This leads us to reflect on the regional and not strictly local nature of their cult, now reinforced by the discovery of a new testimony of Larrahe in Larunbe (Agirre-Mauleón 2024). The graphic varieties of the theonym are analysed linguistically, with regard to the double representation of the rhotics (r/rr) and the alternation in the ending (-he /-hi). Finally, the differences in gender and social background of the dedicators, from Roman citizens to slaves, suggests a broad functionality of these divinities.
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