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
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