other than place-names and a little written evidence, the picture is not very clear in the west of the basque country, as the historical record is scant. the territory was inhabited by the caristii, varduli, and autrigones, and has been claimed as either basque or celtic depending on the author, since indo-european lexical elements have been found underlying or intertwined in the names given to natural features, such as rivers or mountains (butron, nervion, deba/deva, suffix ‑ika etc.) in an otherwise generally basque linguistic landscape, or spanish, especially in álava.