Understandably, the Basques themselves are fairly obsessed about being old since this is what makes them different. They may not be descendants of the Cro-Magnons or even the lost 13th tribe of Israel, as some versions of the Basque myth suggest, but they do probably represent Europe's oldest living culture. Their language, Euskera, which has no modern relative, predates the Indo-European invasion of Iberia around 900 B.C. They are also physically distinct: Basques have the highest incidence of Type O and Rh negative blood in the world.

The Romans, who took Iberia and gave the Basques their name around 200 B.C., found it easier to coexist with, rather than subjugate, these wild mountain people. They built roads connecting the Basques with the rest of Iberia, but they neither assumed military control nor levied taxes. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, while their lands were occasionally invaded and they were frequently ruled from afar, the Basques retained their way of life. Only in the mid-19th century, after successive defeats in civil wars, did they lose their autonomy. Yet, by the turn of the century, nationalism was surging anew. [...]

For all their introspection, the Basques have never been shy about exerting their influence beyond their borders. From the ninth century, the Basques were extraordinary fishermen, wandering far beyond the treacherous waters of the Bay of Biscay to chase whales and later cod in the North Atlantic. Did they land in North America before the Vikings supposedly built huts in Newfoundland around A.D. 1000? Kurlansky believes they probably reached the New World in the 13th or 14th century. By the 15th century, he writes, ''widespread rumors persisted, especially among fishermen and maritime people, that Basque fishermen had found 'a land across the sea.' ''In the meantime, they were supplying a good part of Spain and France with dried cod.

Christianity, which came late to the Basque region (many pagan traditions persist to this day), in turn quickly transformed the Basques into enthusiastic combatants in Spain's Reconquest (against the Moors) and Counter-Reformation (against the Protestants). The link between sword and cross was personified by Inigo de Loyola, who as ''a knight of the Virgin,'' Ignatius, founded the Society of Jesus in 1534. Within a century, the Jesuits, packed with Basques, were playing a central role in Christianizing Latin America and educating Europe's elites.

Still, it is as capitalists that the Basques have best insured their survival. While French Basques were poor farmers, ill-equipped to resist 19th-century centralization, the Spanish Basque region, notably Bilbao, flourished through shipbuilding, mining, steel and banking. This also meant that, when nationalism returned late in the century, the rest of Spain felt threatened. Indeed, even Franco might have worried less about the Basques had they not been central to the economy. Conversely, over the last 20 years, the closing of many Basque heavy industries has made it easier for E.T.A. to recruit unemployed youths.

The Basque region, though, is rising again. Culturally, it has not been so alive since the 1930's, as evidenced by rapid growth in the number of Basque speakers and by pride in the new Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Economically, it is looking for a postindustrial vocation that can absorb its jobless. And politically, while independence is not in the cards (and may not even be the wish of the majority), ''we are not fighting for a Basque state but to be a new European state,'' the Basque nationalist leader, Xabier Arzalluz, explains. His real objective, though, has not changed: it is for the Basques to remain Basques.
    -REVIEW: of THE BASQUE HISTORY OF THE WORLD By Mark Kurlansky (Alan Riding, NY Times Book Review)