Replications of Gaulish Toponyms in Biscay: On the Etymologies of Gorbeia, Orobio and Orozko

There is a number of ethnonyms, toponyms and hydronyms in the central-northern part of the Iberian Peninsula which have been traditionally accounted for, with varying degrees of reliability, as names given by settlers coming from northern Gaul in the third centurybc. Thus, the Suessiones may have provided the base for the ethnonym Suessetani (Huesca) and the site Suestatio (Araba). They may also have brought the name Corbio mentioned by Livy as a town of the Suessetani. Similarly, the river Nervión, the ethnonym Autrigones, the divine name Vurovius, the choronym Bureba and its capital Briviesca (in northern Burgos), and some others like the Biscayan site Orobio, have been connected to the migrations of the Nervii mentioned by Caesar and related northern Gaulish peoples. All these names will be discussed and analysed in conjunction, and two new etymologies will be proposed, within the frame of these migrations, for two place names in Biscay: Mount Gorbeia and Orozko.