<bron87.htm> [Bronze Age Text]
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CLICK to enlarge This previously undeciphered stele
was reported by Professor Santos Junior, president of the Sociedade de
Antropologia e Etnologia. It was
associated with numerous stone images of animals, found in the Berroes
District of northern Portugal, adjacent to a dolmen-bearing zone where early
Basque inscriptions were disclosed by Fell's (1982) translations. This stele also is Basque, written in the
Euskera syllabary. The Laminak
(plural of Lamina) are usually stated by present-day Basques to be
"mountain dwarfs," still feared in country districts of the Basque
lands. But the great Basque scholar
and lexicographer Resurección María de Azukue cites the word as having the
sense of pythoness or priestess
where it is used in the Basque Bible, and other ancient sources speak of them
as female monsters that inhabited the Basque lands prior to the coming of
Christianity. Professor Santos Junior
regards his finds as implying the worship of beasts in ancient Iberia (Santos
Junior, 1977), especially at Tras-os-Montes.
Perhaps the Laminak are in some way connected
with the religion. (see Edo Nyland for discussion of
the Basque language origin) |
