Varduli

The Varduli were a tribe that Roman historians reported in Northern Hispania, west of the Vascones and east of the Caristii and the Deba river; now the main part of the Basque province of Guipuzcoa, and parts of Alava and Navarre. Their main city was Ara-Caeli (modern Uharte-Arakil, Navarre). The name of their cities indicate a clear Indoeuropean origin –or, rather, typically Celtic– such as Deobriga (-briga being a toponymic suffix that indicates a fortified town) and Suessatium (probably related to the Belgic Suessiones and the Suessetani in Aragon).

Field research and recent archaeological findings, such as the non existence of stone circles in the inhabiting area of the Varduli, have pointed to a culture other than that of the Vascones. The contact line between both tribes has been pinpointed at the Leitzaran River, with the hill-fort unearthed at the eastern side of Buruntza presumably belonging to the Varduli.

Their ethnonym (Varduli) is connected with an area that is referred to in documents from the early Middle Ages as Bardulia, which is identified as the cradle of Old Castile.

See also

• Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula

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