Basque Protoculture

The Satanders were a ancient protoculture that was situated in the ranges of the Pyrenees, they consisted first of the remaining Neanderthal peoples within the region but later went on to become sapiens for a short period of time in their further Britannic extents before once again becoming Neandrathals in those regions. It is one of the more advanced cultures in Europe, already being capable of using some basic forms of Masonry and advanced techniques in artwork.

## History

The ancient Satanders formed from the Remnant protoculture which itself was less of a Protoculture and more of a confederation of three tribes, these tribes being the last of the Neandrathal peoples within the Iberian Peninsula. It was due to this confederacy that the Remnants were able to spread so far as Britain and Brittany, It is also how they began their early use of farming and grain and began their famous Santander artworks.

The earliest of the confederacy came from three particular tribes that come with little knowledge of interest in the modern fields of study, the most prominent of these were the Mozaites who brought with them their flint skills and Santander artworks the Douro river culture which brought with them their skills in boat making and fishing which launched the confederacy into their expansion across the Celtic sea and finally the Caton Who had brought with them the ability to tame sheeps and dogs, though out of the three it was the last to join the confederacy.

The most famous feat of the Remnant and later Basque culture was their early use of stone in creating the Bermeo Docks which had a stone foundation, the Medina Towns which had stone walls and finally their use of stone in creating the Clawed fish traps It is relatively unknown how the Basques managed to create and use stone in the builds or how they came across the information to do this.

## Culture

Basque culture primarily lived around farming and a defensive lifestyle within the Medina Towns often tribes would reach large numbers of even one thousand in these towns before the beautiful apocalypse had begun, afterwards many Basque tribes came out relatively unharmed except for the fleeing Iberians and Okino coming towards their borders and the brutal conflicts within, this caused numbers to drop down to six hundred per town and lead several of the Bermeo Docks and Fleece houses to being destroyed, it is theorised that some of the Clawed fish traps were also destroyed but this has been debated with theories that it was offerings to bears.

Basques also farmed heavily, usually gathering wild grains and fruit trees and growing them in what is called Corpse Growing in which an entire forest is cleared around a gathering of grain or fruit trees in order to help them grow, unwanted growths being cleared away by the Basques in order to get the produce that they need. Another part of the Basque lifestyle is sheep herding, originally coming from the Caton in the Remnants, the Basques have been known to create Fleece houses which store the bones of dead sheep for rituals, along with this several Satander Artworks that show Shepards watching over grazing sheep has lead to sheep farming being widely believed.

The Basques were also a warlike culture, the development of the Medina Towns coming to what was originally thought to be a reaction from pressure from the Okino and Iberian cultures which itself was also the cause of the early Remnant Confederacy between the Neandrathal tribes of Iberia. We can see that the Basques took inspiration from the Pre-Beautiful-Apocalypse type central European Bone and Hide armours. Though the armour around the waste was widely unused in Both Britannian and Iberian Basques, only appearing in the Basques of Mann and Cornwall, the Pre-Beautiful-Apocalypse Skull Helmet is shown to be widely used, often sporting Satander Artworks which were this time carved on forming the Bone-Type Satander Artworks which was first coined by Zephra A.D. Lovell.
The weaponry of the remnants and the basque however has been widely the same, both groups would use flint javelins and slings as their main forms of weaponry along with using Douro River sharpened stone axes. Bows from Iberia have been found amongst some of the battle sites of the Basques along with their grave goods, but it was much rarer then the slings and javelins which themselves had some forms of Satander Artworks on the spear tip, typically showing images of the Great White Boar standing on top of defeated enemies.

The Bormeo Docks were also of interest to scholars as it provided them with examples of the advancement of the Douro River Culture within the Remnant confederacy, it is the structure in which the Flint Canoes were built, these Canoes were typically made from the wood of native trees, often decorated with the Spring Meadow Saffron and Satander Artworks along the hulls of the ship, typically showing the Familiar Beast of every member of the Basque rowing crew. These early Canoes could fit up to twenty people and could be made to such an extent that over a thousand ships could made within a hundred years, leading the Basque take over of Britain.
There has also been evidence of special fish traps called the Clawed fish traps which were used to take fish from the rivers of the Pyrenees, especially done in the Douro river. It is estimated that these traps were made from stone and sheep hide, the special subset of Clawed fish traps named Bear-Clawed fish traps seemed to have been designed specifically for the use of bears, this may be a hint towards the remainder of the ancient Jasanism amongst the Basques. Though some archaeologists, most notably Cel J. Derat, has argued that they could have been destroyed or disfigured by the ancient Iberians and Okinos though this has been widely ignored by the historian community.

The Basques had a complex system of artwork named the Satander Artworks, named after Howard P. Satander it is widely debated on what a Satander artwork is, some suggest that the Satander Artworks come from the giant walls of flint that have been knapped and chipped to provide artistic value while others argue that the Mozites were the earliest practioners of the Satander Artworks technique, it remains a widely debated topic amongst the scholars of the Basque culture.
Due to the Frequency of these artworks we have been able to deduce several things from their culture, that they have been able to farm sheep, that they can tame dogs and most importantly from a wide collection of artworks called The book of Moza the complex and deep Basque religion.

## Social Structure

The ancient Basque Protoculture has a complicated, family relegated social structure, the standard house of the Basque citizen (Ignoring the Fleece Houses and Bermeo Docks are made with a specific amount of support beams at the bottom, each beam having on it Satander Artworks depicting a beast, sometimes mythical of a family member, then a family crest created in a fish bone artwork called a Spine-Artwork was placed on the door, almost always showing a mythical beast.
The most famous of these houses, dubbed the Becker Style House, named after the archaeologist Jared W.S. Becker was the Mermaid House of Biscay, named after it's location, housed about Seven members with a confirmed three pillars being removed from the house, showing that up to ten people could live per house. Out of the three that were removed, two of them were shown buried with a Satander style eagle on one side and the Mermaid of the family on the other, seeming to mean that marriage would move people from their houses, the two were both female, showing that family came from the male line, showing stark difference the Matrilineal Iberian system.
Three poles were found in the centre, a great Boar and wolf, representing the father and the mother and a third one showing a man with a chisel. This is thought to be a female shaman, normally the grandmother of the family, it is theorised that when the grandfather dies the grandmother becomes a shaman and teaches the family of religion, the rest are the two teenage sons of the family, an adult uncle and young girl. Later on, up on the Gavarine Grave showed a man who died of old age that was buried next to a support beam bearing a woman hunting with a spear, it is believed to be the grandfather of the family.

The Basque Medina Town of Baretous has on it a great wall of Satander Artwork that demonstrates the political system of the ancient Basque confederacy. In the Beckers longhouse, also named after Jared W.S. Becker, it is believed that the chieftain of the village reined, he was initialised in the White Mysteries which remained completely mysterious. He was chosen from a council that also lived within the Beckers longhouse made out of two men and two women.
From the Baretous Satander Artworks we find that the council was widely celibate, ignoring both men and women during fertility festival and may have been considered the wives and husbands of the chieftain or chieftess, though early Remnants didn't allow women to become the leader, it is theorised that early contact between the more matrilineal Iberians and Okinos. These kings were found buried on top the Perdido Graves with grave goods including Satander Artworks and the flint spears.

## Religion

The Book of Moza is considered on the best records of the ancient Basque religion, it has a full description of the creation story and lists some of the exploits of various gods and kings it can also provide various bits of information of the movement of the Basque kings, against the Iberians, Aulerci, Other Basques, Okino and the early contact with the Nykendtes which caused the taming of the red fox amongst most of the basque houses.
The book was found in the Medina Town of Benasque Valley, the town itself was shown to have been briefly taken over in Okino raid, as several skeletons bearing distinct Sapien genetics and some forms of Bone and Hide continental European waste armour, after the takin back of the town it was shown that the Basque king at the time commissioned the piece of Satander artwork which would later be buried with him under the city when the Medina Town of Benasque Valley was finally destroyed by Okino refugees during the Beautiful-Apolcolypse.