Genetically, Basques aren't that different from other Spaniards

WITH THEIR unique language, unrelated to all other European tongues, the continent’s oldest cave paintings, and their seafaring, gastronomic and choral traditions, the Basques have long had a strong sense of identity. Nationalist propagandists have gone further, claiming that the Basques form an ancient and superior race, the first Europeans. In some versions they descend directly from the biblical Noah.A new study of the genes of Basques and their neighbours brings mixed news for nationalists. The study, by a team at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona and published in , shows that Basques are indeed genetically different from their neighbours. But those differences seem to be relatively recent, dating from the end of the Iron Age (around 2,500 years ago). And they are greater in the core Basque-speaking areas than in the Basque periphery.