La pedra en sec. Materials, eines i tècniques tradicionals a les illes ...

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** 6 6.2 DRYSTONE MASONRY STRUCTURES
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LAND ARRANGEMENT rotational axis is inserted in the polleguera
located on the ground.
STRUCTURES. WALLS . Other openings (clavegueres or
. .: drains) were also built to let water;
Drystone walls are aimed at marklnf! ; herds or hunting animals through, and
the boundaries of holdings, orgam- ; saltadors or botadors (crossing plasing
farmland by delimiting sown ~ ces) were built to allow people to get
fields, cleared land and enclosed ~ over the walls.
fields, and to keep animals inside ~ The clavegueres were small opeyards,
milking areas or enclosed ~ nings normally made at ground level.
fields. These walls can be found all ~ Some were built in walls enclosing
over the isla~d although they are most j grassland to allow sheep or pigs to
widespread In the flatter parts, espe- ; enter and leave, but they can also be
cially in areas with a limestone sub- ; found in enclosed fields where high
stratum such as the coastal areas of; amounts of rainwater were frequent;
Llucmajor; the Llevant (the East) and ~ the wall acted as a barrier which stop-
Petra, and in small enclaves on the ~ ped this water flowing away naturally
Pia (Plain) which have the same type ~ and hence the risk of the wall collapsof
rock (parts of Llubf, Sineu, Santa j ing was greater.
Eugenia, Algaida and Costltx). ~ The most common saltadors are
There is a great diversity of rock ; raised steps that consist of a series of
types and degrees of dressing to be : stones laid with one end embedded in
found in the island's drystone walls. ~ the wall and the other end projecting
Differentiation by type is based on ; out. They were placed on both sides
how they are finished, with the excep- ~ of the wall to allow people both to
tions of the paret toma (provisional ~ climb up and to climb down. Often the
stone wall), made by just piling up sto- ~ crown of the wall was lowered at this
nes, the paret de lIoses (s~one slab f point to make crossing easier; espewall),
which simply CO~SIStS.of a ; cially in the case of walls.
series of flat stone slabs laid vertically,; In exceptional cases some walls
the paret amb bardissa (a wall on ; that are sufficiently wide can be used
which thorny foliage and branches j as paths or as ways of getting betare
placed), and the paret rasan~ (low ~ ween terraced fields.
wall), a wall less than a metre high. A ~
distinction is also made by the way of ~
finishing them between the esquena f
d'ase (humpbacked) wall, the paret ;
cabrera (goatherd wall) and the paret :
amb corona (crowned wall). j
The gateway built into the wall (the ~
portell) varies in width depending on j
whether it was intended for use by ~
carts or by animals. Its characteristic :
features are the escassera and the ~
polleguera, two embedded pieces of ~
stone, wood or iron each with a hole ~
in it to hold the vertical bar or polle- ~
guera of the gate. The neck of the pol- ;
leguera turns around the escassera, ~
while the pin or agla that makes the j