Read how the discovery of 17 tombs from the Iron Age has sparked the curiosity of archaeologists in a small village of rural Navarre
We are used to thinking of European history before the Greeks and the Romans as a negligible affair: hundreds and hundreds of years reduced to a couple of bitesized anecdotes to repeat in passing before moving on to the truly important periods – the Roman Empire and Christianity – that have shaped history (and Europe) as we know it.
But what if this prehistory – for the most part shrouded in mystery – was to hold the key to understanding many of the continent’s local customs and traditions? This is the question that journalist Aritz Intxusta asks himself in his fascinating article ‘La muerte y el círculo, piedras y fuego’ [Death, Circles, Stones and Fire] from the Basque publication 7K.
Concretely, the article discusses the discovery of 17 tombs from the Iron Age that have been discovered in the village of Garinoain, 24 kilometres south of Pamplona, Northern Spain, as a result of the works for the high-speed railway that will run nearby. The author goes into detail about the funerary rites that are thought to have been performed in and around these tombs dating to 600 BC. He also discusses their architecture and the material culture – the artefacts and symbols they carry – found in their vicinity. This is more or less all we have to go on to try and interpret an unknown civilisation that used to live in the area known as Euskal Herria (of which Navarre is part) before it was settled by the Basque people.
As a result of the development of iron tools (in particular, weapons!), people in the Iron Age took to building fortifications in the mountains of Navarre, areas especially difficult to reach where they could find refuge in case of attack. In these same settlements, they began to bury their dead in the ways now revealed by archaeological discovery. As both the author and the archeologists he interviews speculate, those who were buried in this way were most likely people of high rank who came to symbolise the continuing existence of the community more broadly.
As demonstrated by the human remains found at Garinoain, these Iron Age “notables” weren’t simply buried whole. Rather, they were burned first on special pyres – in a way not unlike that portrayed in the ancient Greek epic poem The Iliad. Their bones were then smashed into smaller pieces so they could fit into small adobe clay containers that were finally placed at the centre of each of these tombs.
As to the architecture of the tombs themselves, these were circular structures made of stone with a diameter ranging between seven and 18 metres. It’s unclear if they had a roof or whether they served other purposes. Most likely, they functioned as specifically designed sacred areas. In one of them, as well as grave goods which testify that this wasn’t a particularly rich community, archaeologists also found a stele – an archaeologist’s word for a stone slab or pillar – carved with circles, as well as other symbols vaguely reminiscent of a flower with petals. This allows them to connect the settlement to at least a hundred others unearthed in and around Navarre.
This is all the strictly archaeological conjecture and interpretation that the findings of the Garinoain site have so far allowed for. But the author of the article makes another tantalising conjecture. As it happens, the previously hidden burial ground has long been a site of pilgrimage for the people of the nearby village of Santa Caterina. Each year, come harvest season, they make the trek to a chapel built over the Iron Age burial ground, and the local priest gives his blessing to the surrounding cereal fields. What if this contemporary ritual, in which Catholic liturgy and Pagan fertility cults of the Roman era blend seamlessly, and the village comes together as a community, have its origin in the distant and little understood Iron Age?
The original article written by Aritz Intxusta, ‘La muerte y el círculo, piedras y fuego’, was published in Spanish on February 8, 2026 on 7K.
It is available here.
7K is the Sunday supplement of Basque daily website Naiz. It specialises on long-form articles on social issues, culture, economy, as well as current affairs, with a particular focus on the Basque Country.
Summary by BS
