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Monday, November 19, 2018

Basque Tombstones

The San Temlos museum touts itself as having the largest collection of hilarria, or ancient Basque tombstones.  They are disc shaped atop a trapezoidal shaped stand, and they face the rising sun, which is a cool way to think about how they want to think about their dead, basked in light each morning.
There are lots of designs that are represented, the most common being either rosettes or geometrical designs, and they often have a design that incorporates motion, going clockwise or what is thought of as a forward direction.  Other popular motifs are the sun and moon, and things that are natural.
I like the idea of carving something for a loved one once they die.  It is somehow more beautiful to me than a name and a date, and perhaps an epitaph about their character.  It is more about saying something with pictures rather than words.

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