Archaeologists at the Iruña-Veleia (Alava) site have discovered the first words in Euskera, dating back to between the 3rd and 4th century. Up to now the only older inscriptions to these were found on tombstones and stones in Aquitania , but these only had the names of places and people, and not common nouns such as those found in Veleia.

The first common nouns in Euskera would therefore be those found in Alava, bringing the date of the first written form of Euskera forward by several centuries (taking the date of the first written form of Euskera back several centuries) . Up to now it has been thought that the oldest example, were, like that of Castilian, the notes discovered in San Millán (La Rioja).

The words have been found in the foundations of a house, inscribed on the bricks, glass and bones. Some of these inscriptions are "zuri urdin gori" (the colours, white, blue and red), "urdin isar" (blue star), "edan ian lo" (drink, eat, sleep), "ian ta edan" (eat and drink) and Jaun (Sir). Other words are religious: "Geure ata zutan" (our Father among us), a greeting which the ancient Christians used, and "Iesus, Ioshe ata ta Mirian ama" (Jesus, Joseph and the Virgin Mary), in other words, the Holy Family. As well as the words in Euskera, pictures have been found with scenes from the life of Jesus and what could be a representation of the Last Supper.