@pangloss yes, the Basque language is fascinating! I don't know a lot about it but maybe I could propose that we call it one of the "purest" rather than the "oldest" languages? In other words, it must certainly have evolved over the millennia, but without much influence from other languages. It doesn't seem likely that it would be unchanged from the time of Neanderthal humans. (AFAIK it's unproven whether Neanderthals had a spoken language...)
