Harrespil

Harrespil /hare ʂpil/is the name Basque, being able to be translated by “stone circle”, given to small the Cromlech S which abounds on the reliefs Pyrénéen S in particular with the Basque Country.

They are also called baratz , word meaning " jardin" and traditionally applied to the prehistoric Necropolis S.

Monuments in mountain

Description

Gathered in Necropolis S from 5 to 20 specimens, these monuments date from the late Bronze Age (starting from -1200 approximately). Their construction was prolonged during the age of iron.

This type of burial is distinguished from the preceding ones by the recourse to the cremation, typical of the movements Sorothaptique S.

More spectacular its fitting than by the size of the stones, the harrespil consists of a stone circle surrounding a receptacle for ashes. This circle consists of vertical flagstones or a dry stone wall, assembly of small overlapping flagstones forming a kind of enclosure. Its diameter is variable, often about 5 to 6 Mr.

Buried inside, a receptacle is arranged to collect ashes. Some harrespils have a rectangular trunk in roofing stone S, of approximately a meter by 60 cm, consisted of 4 side flagstones and a flagstone of cover. One counts in all up to 8 different types of cistus.

Harrespil and tumulus

These monuments coexisted with Tumulus, larger, also sheltering a cist with incineration, but surrounded by stones in bulk.

Their architectures sometimes combined, as with Zaho II where the harrespil is hidden under a tumulus, delimited by a second stone circle. Others, like Millagate IV , present only the external circle forming large a harrespil (approximately 10 m) of which the central part is covered with a cluster with ground.

Who built them?

The residues of cremation correspond to adult men. If the harrespil-tumulus Millagate IV contains the remainders of a whole individual, one finds in the others only at best a handle or two of ashes.

One also notices that these monuments are in mountain, on peaks with 1000 m of altitude on average, and not close to the villages. One from of deduced that it acts more epitaph S set up in the honor of personalities, that authentic burials.

Diffusion of these harrespils, of the the Basque Pyrenees with the Andorra, and their maintenance in activity until little before the romanisation, suggests that these funeral rituals had remained the mark of the sovereigns of the countries Vascons.

Their manufacturers are these even which held the Gaztelu zahar and others Oppida of the Pyrenean piedmont, of which they are perhaps sublimation.

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