One of the most popular events of the Sanfermines is always the parade of the "peñas" at the end of each day, except on July 8, the bullfight. The 17 peñas parade with banners that usually include caricatures of our politicians and other events that have marked the Navarrese news of the last year.

But on this occasion it has not been Cristina Ibarrola, the new mayoress of Pamplona, or the general elections of July 23rd that have been the most prominent themes on the Sanferminera banners, but rather the Hand of Irulegi, the internationally famous bronze piece with a registration that includes a word in ancient Basque. It could be that even our visitors from abroad have heard of this finding in the last few months through the media in their own countries. At least six peñas include the Hand of Irulegi on their banners: Aldapa, Alegría, La Única, Irrintzi, San Fermín and Rotxapea.

Reviewing last year's banners, I see that, on the other hand, the toga of Pompelo, then recovered for the Museum of Navarre, and also of great archaeological and historical value, did not appear on the banners of the peñas. The reasons may be several, but above all one of identity stands out: we feel we are Basques, but not Romans.

This happens in spite of all that "the Romans have done for us", to paraphrase the famous question from Life of Brian. It is clear that the citizenship and territorial administration that Rome brought to the territory of the ancient Basques have had a greater influence on our current European society than those indigenous elements that shaped the Basque cities, beyond outdated myths such as the barbarism and brutality of this pre-Roman ethnic group.

We feel Basque, but we do not feel Roman because identities, also the Navarrese or Basque, are built from the differentiating element. The cultural uniformity that Rome implied, in spite of the indigenous elements that it respected and even incorporated into its customs, is not attractive to those who want to find the local particularity, the most ancient redoubt of Navarreseness, which would be the primitive language , the current Basque language. But it goes without saying, as Joaquín Gorrochategui and Javier Velaza, scholars of the Hand of Irulegi, have pointed out, that we do not know if Basque is an antecedent of Euskera.

What we do know is that Basque, one of the languages used by the Vascones, would have been written with some of its own symbols based on the Iberian sign. The Hand of Irulegi has shown that the Vascones knew how to write in their own language but it is equally true that they managed to do so thanks to the Iberian alphabet, thus highlighting the strong cultural relationships that existed in the Iberian Peninsula. The local particularity is manifested as much as the interrelations with other peoples and ethnic groups of Antiquity. In fact, the strong cultural and linguistic diversity present in the territory of the Vascones has been considered an element core topic for at least two decades, among others, by Professor Javier Andreu, Full Professor of Ancient History at the University of Navarra.

Beyond this punctual connection of the Sanfermines with Antiquity thanks to the banners of the peñas, it is probable that these fiestas have their origin, or at least a part of it, in the ancient Vascones and in the importance that the bull had in their societies. Not in vain, some years ago, Professor Alicia Canto referred to Navarra as "the land of the bull" due to the important presence of steles and aras, especially in the southern part of our territory, with representations of the head, the body or the horns of this animal that we identify to a great extent with the Sanfermines.

The bullfighting rings and ashlars found in the current provinces of Zaragoza and Navarra show us that the Vascones were already interested in the world of the bull and that they associated it with the funerary sphere. Perhaps this is another cultural and identity marker that we can claim every time we link our sense of belonging to the ancient Basques, as the peñas have done with the Mano de Irulegi. Hopefully this will serve to highlight the importance of Antiquity and, above all, become an opportunity to learn more about what the Basques, the Iberians, the Celts or the Romans have done for us.