Platos y cuencos con sal: un ritual funerario de la Edad Moderna y Contemporánea en la Península Ibérica

• Autores: Carmen Alonso Fernández
• Localización: Munibe Antropologia - Arkeologia, ISSN 1132-2217, Nº 70, 2019, págs. 335-349
• Idioma: español
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Dishes and bowls with salt: a funerary ritual of the Modern and Contemporary Age in the Iberian Peninsula
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• Resumen
  • español

    Desde la Edad Moderna y hasta mediados del siglo XX, en España y otros países de Europa se practicó un ritual funerario a medio camino entre lo religioso y lo pagano cuyo recuerdo en la Península Ibérica aún se rastrea en la tradición oral entre las personas de mayor edad. En el ritual se utilizaba recipientes con sal que se colocaban encima del difunto durante el velatorio o las exequias. Las cerámicas procedentes del osario de la iglesia de Quintanalara (Burgos) –su origen, dispersión y su concepción como elementos cotidianos vs funerarios- sirve de estudio de caso para profundizar en este ritual funerario tan escasamente conocido y estudiado como geográficamente extendido, acotarlo desde el punto de vista cronológico y espacial, e investigar su origen y significado.

  • English

    From the Modern Age until the mid-twentieth century, in Spain and other European countries, a funerary ritual was practiced halfway between the religious and the pagan. In the Iberian Peninsula, his memory is still traced in the oral tradition among the elderly. In the ritual were used containers with salt that were placed on top of the deceased during the wake or the funeral. On other occasions, the containers were introduced into the tomb. Although the justification was that the salt prevented the body from swelling, the objective was to prevent the spirit from returning to the body, favouring transit to the beyond or warding off the forces of evil. Sometimes they put open scissors in the shape of a cross on the bowl or the plate. The practice was favoured in Baroque times with the increase of concern for the transit of the soul to the beyond.

    The fear was based on the belief that the dead do not suddenly leave the world of the living, but reaches an intermediate stage that lasts the time that the body takes to decompose. As long as the dead man’s face retains his human features, his soul will be in danger. The salt acts as a protective element. The ritual was applied to both men and women, of all social classes, who lived in rural or urban areas. Among the written testimonies stands out a poem by Federico García Lorca, this describes the ritual in a wake, and a document of the War of Independence, on the funeral of an English general in the monastery of El Escorial (Madrid) in 1812. The pottery from the archaeological excavation of the ossuary of the church of Quintanalara (Burgos) -its origin, dispersion and its conception as everyday elements vs. funerary-, serves as a case study to deepen in this funerary ritual so scarcely known and studied as geographically extended, delimit it from the chronological and spatial point of view, and investigate its origin and meaning. Among the pottery productions are documented typical containers from pottery workshops of Villafeliche (Zaragoza), Talavera de la Reina (Toledo) and Olleros-Olivares (Salamanca-Zamora).

  • euskara

    Aro Modernotik hasi eta XX. mendearen erdialdera arte, Espainian eta Europako beste herrialde batzuetan erlijioaren eta gai paganoen arteko tarteko bidean zegoen hileta-erritu bat egiten zuten, eta Iberiar penintsulako adin handieneko pertsonen artean, haren inguruko oroitzapena oraindik ere jaso daiteke ahozko tradizioan. Erritu horretan, gatzez betetako ontziak erabiltzen zituzten. Hildakoaren gainean jartzen zituzten ontzi haiek gaubeilan edo hiletetan. Quintanalarako (Burgos) elizako hezurtegian jasotako zeramikak (jatorria, sakabanatzea eta sorkuntza eguneroko elementu gisa vs hiletarako elementu gisa) baliagarriak izan dira horren gutxi aztertu eta ezagutu den arren geografiari dagokionez hedatuta egon den hileta-erritu hori sakontzeko kasu-azterketa gisa. Horren arabera, kronologia eta espazio mailako ikuspegitik mugatu eta jatorri eta esanahia aztertu ahal izan dira.