Oiasso

Oiasso,[1] Oiasona[2] or Oiarso[3] was a Vascon Roman (Civitas) town located on the left bank of the Bidasoa estuary in the Bay of Biscay (current Spain).

Archaeological evidence unearthed recently pinpoints the core area of Oiasso in the old quarter of Irun (Gipuzkoa) by the Spanish-French border, where harbour and bath remains have been discovered.

Romans showed an early interest on them on account of the ore (largely silver and copper) they could extract from them, using the port and factories of Oiasso to process and dispatch the freight away.

[4][5] In his Naturalis Historia, Pliny, drawing from a text dated to 50 B.C., expanded the territory of the Vascones to the westernmost part of the Pyrenees towards the location of Oiarso.

[7][8] Based on this reference and another mention by Ravenate, [9] Julio Caro Baroja [10] suggested that Oiasso should be understood as a dispersed nucleus with two centers: a city and a port.

Notable ports in the Cantabrian region included Brigantium, Flaviobriga, Vesperies (possibly located at the estuary of Guernica), Menosca (believed to be Guetaria), Lapurdum, and Burdigala.