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* * *: 6 6.5 DRYSTONE MASONRY STRUCTURES
IT UCTUIITJIUUlT 0
TOA RANGE
OF ECONOMIC
ACTIVITIES
Drystone masonry was also used in
activities as varied as threshing
cereals and pulses, hunting birds,
and making ice, charcoal and building
materials (lime and plaster).
Traditionally cereals and pulses
were threshed and the grains separated
from the chaff on a threshing floor,
a circular area across which the farmer
would repeatedly drive a threshing
cart pulled by a mule. In terms of
construction, the threshing floor
would often be simply bordered by a
stone circle to keep the grain in or
additionally be mounted on top of a
round terrace wall.
The traditional practice of catching
thrushes (Turdus spp.) with nets involved
in some cases drystone masonry
structures. The hunter would sit down,
holding up the net, and when a thrush
flew into it would bundle the bird up.
Drystone masonry structures enabled
the hunter to get higher up, and the
technique was used to build stone
benches and to place foliage that hid
both the hunter and his nets.
A whole range of products with different
uses was also produced for
many centuries using drystone
masonry innovations. Ice for medicinal
and cooking purposes, referenced
since the 16th century) was obtained
from snow stored in reservoirs
that were generally sited in the
highest parts of the island. In order to
make these reservoirs, natural
depressions (avencs) were slightly
modified and dry stone masonry used
to improve the structure. More commonly,
a shaft was dug, drystone wal-
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aU
neu or snow pits).
Snow pits are large reservoirs,
generally rectangular in shape and
with rounded sides in the case of artificial
holes. The most common type of
roofing usually consisted of two slopes
made with a central beam and a
wooden frame on which crossbeams
were placed. This was then covered
with tiles or reeds. All snow pits had
openings called bombarderes which
the snow came in through and an
opening for the nevaters, or snow
workers, to get inside to pack down
the snow or remove the ice.
Charcoal production using sitges
(piles or heaps of wood which were
burnt) also gave rise to a drystone
masonry structure in the woods; a circular
paved area on which the sitja
was built called a rotlo de sitja (charcoal
bunker).
Lime was produced in limekilns,
round walled cavities in which limestone
was calcined, and then mostly
used as mortar (boiled quicklime and
sand) and lime wash. The presence
and amount of rough stone was to be
taken into account when it came to
siting a limekiln in the mountains.
The manufacture of all these products
gave rise to particular trades
carboner (charcoal maker), calciner
(limekiln worker) and nevater (snow
collector). These had their specific
tools and organisational systems, and
also a network of tracks which ran
across the mountains to the work
areas and linked them up with the
towns and villages to give them a
sales outlet. This also involved the use
of other drystone masonry structures
as well, such as huts for shelter during
the snow collection period or when
calcinating lime or burning wood and
a number of water supply systems