La tierra del toro. Ensayo de identificación de ciudades vasconas

Abstract

This paper is divided into two parts. The first one deals with the evidences of the worship to the bull and the moon, especially the most characteristic «aras taurobólicas» (Navarra and W. of Saragossa), as defining elements of the ager Vasconum original territory. In the second part a new method of analysis, sectoral, is proposed on order to try and make use of some of geographer Ptolomey's (II, 6, 66) up to now unusable facts concerning the Vasconic towns. Various ancient and medieval archaelogical and literary sources will suggest new locations for eighteen such towns, notably for the huge territory known as «Bárdenas Reales» (presently uninhabited), perhaps an ager Caesarianus adsignatus. The final map (fig. 13) seems to match fairly well the experimental one (fig. 9) based on Ptolemy, hinting thus at the soundness of the method employed.