A Megalithic settlement surrounded by discount stores.
Date(s): 2007. Photos by Aymar. 1 - 57 of 57 Total. 3541 Visits.
1 Ses Paisses Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.. - More prosaic: superimposed signboards (not all plumb line upright)
2 Capdepera, the new Lidl You can say a lot about Lidl but they keep the 'tenemos' (temple precinct) concept alive. Not sure about the most appropriate Spanish word to describe this kind of enclosure fence: tabique, estacado, recinto, barandilla?
3 Capdepera , the new Lidl
4 Capdepera, the new Lidl 'Que barat!'. The dropped 'o' makes all the difference. Food prices are comparatively high. Some same chain store differences might be explained as deferred and anticipated price hikes. Italian pasta (noodles), 500gr, were still at 29 cent. - With that out of the way there might still be time to take the road less traveled. (I was the only visitor that morning.)
5 Ses Paisses the official plaque
6 Ses Paisses Floor plan with chronological coloring. Main point, the central 'talaiot' (most likely the Balearic equivalent of Castilian 'atalaya' =watchtower) is a few centuries older than the enclosure. Unclear if the clan 'mizpah' in question was originally surrounded by daubed and wattled hovels.
7 Ses Paisses the Llobera monolith. It is not clear if the monolith was erected in honor of Llobera or if an existing monolith was rededicated. The heroic deeds and misdeeds in Lloberas high Wagnerian poem (an opera version followed) take place in prehistoric Ses Païsses and some of the neighboring caves. Shortform: Caliban against the Apollonic spirit (with love angle). - Backdrop, a grove of helm oaks.
8 Ses Paisses The main gate of the cyclopean perimeter wall. Saved from souvenir hunters by sheer size. (Try to fit the lintel in an overhead baggage rack.) It is no clear how it was closed. Scriptural parallel with cave tombs would suggest a sealing rock. The poor rock roller would have to climb over the wall afterwards. And woe to the guy who forgot to retract the Jacob's ladder. A thorn bush filling plus inflammable substances if you are very lazy. - The stone 'mortise' in the right door jamb is tool made.
Download MOV 9 Ses Paisses.mov panning the East wall
10 Ses Paisses the narrow gate way
11 Ses Paisses Median threshold rutting. Those Talaiotic settlers must all have been passionate unicycle riders.
12 Ses Paisses Acorn loaded helm oak branch. Also holly oak. The leaves of the young shoots are rather toothed. Evergreen.
13 Ses Paisses And no, I do not know a good Talaiotic recipe for acorn cake. (The only problem probably the high content in tannin. Comes with oakhood.)
14 Ses Paisses dead branches draped with foliose lichens
15 Ses Paisses
16 Ses Paisses more lichen dream shape - only thing missing is a shohooing owl
17 Ses Paisses the flail men are coming
18 Ses Paisses Cuttlefish and octopus shape. Apothecia make good eye sockets, the rest of the thallus may serve as cuttlebone.
19 Ses Paisses Approaching the central talaiot. The Southern apron of rectangular rooms.
20 Ses Paisses
21 Ses Paisses Rim view of the talaiot
22 Ses Paisses A debris filled corridor trench bisects the floor of the talaiot.
23 Ses Paisses, aldermen room The aldermen room next to the talaiot. Hypostyle hall if you want to hedge your bets. It is the most elaborate of all the rooms and comes with 3 free standing columns and six wall pilasters.
24 Ses Paisses, aldermen room
25 Ses Paisses, aldermen room Wall pilaster. The roofing must have weight tons. (The Maya word for column could have been upright alligator.)
26 Ses Paisses, aldermen room Rubber boots are optional. (Ghost voice: as easy as selling mosquito nets to the natives.)
27 Ses Paisses, aldermen room central pillar
28 Ses Paisses, aldermen room Finding column rocks with suitable plane parallel surfaces is not always easy. Small cheat slabs may help. The concrete sealing of the previous column is recent.
29 Ses Paisses , aldermen room Could be one of the ends of the drench corridor through the central talaiot. Take away the surrounding wall and you will have a free standing portal dolmen.
30 Ses Paisses propped up wall
31 Ses Paisses Apsidal room, West
32 Ses Paisses The local carp pond. The plinth for the central column is only partially submersed. A fan shaped arrangement of rafters would have offered itself. The resulting triangular surfaces highly unsuitable for terracotta tiling. Will have taken Roman ingenuity to straighten things out. Local production of pottery is attested since 2000 BC.
33 Ses Paisses Looks like any other building lot after a thunderstorm.
34 Ses Paisses Cave in. In any case choked with rubble. One of the two NW gates.
35 Ses Paisses 'Skull rock'. Practically all surface rock of the Balearic island was once coastline. Some imprinting by abrasive action could be justly described as 'art pour l'art'. Some may suggest some secondary usage as flagpole socket. Before the age of tin can hinges.
36 Ses Paisses Dragon skull with empty eye socket.
37 Ses Paisses Natural or enhanced?
38 Ses Paisses Square rock with flaked off edges. Hardly ancient. Purpose unclear.
39 Ses Paisses Preformatted rock. Natural fissure lines will make the work of the stone mason somewhat easier.
40 Ses Paisses, rectangular room The large rectangular room South of the talaiot. Central column and corner niche. The wall safe is obviously long gone. Maybe some leftover spell scrolls.
41 Ses Paisses, rectangular room
42 thimblesized 'campanile' Funerary object of the late Talaiotic period. (LaTene timeline: 500 BC - 100 BC). Bronze and iron pendants. > Town museum Artà. - (The Talaiotic period ends with the annexation of the pro-Punic Balearic Islands by Metellus in 123 BC.)
43 varilla y disco Funerary object, town museum Artà. Exact symbolism unclear. A cymbal type musical instrument for whiling away the time till the last judgment? Faint music from the graves. Or diabolo (yoyo) related. Shaman's badge of honor? 'Varilla' means 'rod, stick'. Hardly completely unexpected.
44 Arum italicum or kin Not to be confused with Sagittaria 'Arrowhead'.
45 Arum italicum or kin
46 Arum italicum or kin
47 Arum italicum or kin
48 Arum italicum or kin
49 Ses Paisses Smooth Hawksbeard should be close
50 Ses Paisses looks like radish
51 Ses Paisses, vicinity wilted racemes
52 Ses Paisses, vicinity Stone heap in a farm yard. Some reconstruction suggest vaulted roofs for the Ses Paisses houses. If the Etruscans can do it so can we. Somewhat unlikely. Chronology apart, what is the purpose of central pillars once you have mastered true vaulting. As an aside, most schoolbook assume a progression from corbeled arch to true vault. Selfsame Aristotelian purpose. Problem, no smooth transition. Wedge shape and corbeled projections do not mix. More elegant (though not necessarily more correct) to start with a beehive shaped stone heap. Enlarge an interior chamber repeatedly and you will end up with a vault.
53 Ses Paisses, vicinity
54 Ses Paisses, vicinity hobbled sheep - the rusted through gate bars are artfully spliced
55 Ses Paisses, vicinity I understand the wisdom of hobbling. Not that I have ever seen it applied to a frisky puppy.
56 Ses Paisses, vicinity Postmortem on an enclosure wall. Innards of an alarm clock, the more articulate the better, prerogative of shrill instruments and superfluous software tunes, and a partially bent Uri Geller fork.
57 Ses Paisses, vicinity Ubiquitous parameter. The Talaiotic cultures come and go, the sound screen remains. Minor update: Pets are now allowed on airplanes as carry on baggage.
