Four Thousand Years Of Pottery

For what is a part of a municipality (Marratxi), Portol attracts a surprisingly large amount of attention. It was once the place where opposition to bingo being banned (or restricted) at fiesta time was at its strongest. It is better known for its antics of last week when burying the sardine prior to the start of Lent. But it also has a very strong claim to being the centre of a manufacturing tradition which is probably Mallorca's oldest - around four thousand years old.

Marratxi's "fang" fair, which lasts until Sunday, celebrates the clay that goes into pottery and the making of ceramics, and Portol, along with Palma, Inca and Felanitx, has been one of the principal locations for ceramics since at least the eighteenth century. This "modern" manufacturing tradition disguises, however, the very much older tradition, one started by the first settlers in Mallorca.

Giving a precise date for these settlers is somewhat elusive, but it is generally accepted to have been in the late third millennium BC, so around 2200BC. Even this can't be stated with complete certainty as the oldest sites, such as the dolmen of Son Baulo (Can Picafort) and s’Aigua Dolça (Colonia Sant Pere), are reckoned to be from the early part of the second millennium BC. Let's just say that it was a fair old time ago.

It is the dolmen burial sites which provide evidence of some of the earliest pottery, but the evidence is not abundant. There are fragments of bowls but not a lot else. The actual settlements themselves - in caves - were almost certainly not permanent. They were seasonal and the number of inhabitants very modest. The Balearics were not the most hospitable of islands, primarily because, unlike other Mediterranean islands, they were a long way from the mainland.

Settlements were to eventually become permanent, it is believed, because of general turmoil that led to migration for purely peaceful reasons. Archaeological findings indicate, for instance, a lack of the type of weapons that were being used elsewhere. Structures that were created were not fortifications. The Balearics, very much on the periphery, were islands to live without being threatened by the violence that otherwise prevailed. Being a distance from the mainland was to have its advantages.

Pottery and other evidence suggest that these settlers came from Catalonia and southern France. It was the naviforme period from around 1600BC during which more obvious and permanent settlements were established. Excavations at sites of these boat-shaped structures have revealed far greater evidence of pottery; various receptacles which showed something of a technological advance - the use of calcite.

It is really when one comes to the Talayotic period (the proto one from around 1100BC and the "high" one from about 900BC) that a distinct culture and society was formed, and among the ceramic innovations were vases with handles that resembled a bull's head. Otherwise, the shapes, as with examples from Talayotic sites such as S'Illot, acquired a certain uniformity - some round, some vertical, some with handles, some without.

Subsequent invasion and occupation - the Romans and, much later, the Arabs - introduced wholly new approaches to pottery. The Romans brought with them the potter's wheel and a demand for the amphora, the large terracotta container with two handles that was mainly used for oil and wine. The Arabs were to introduce far greater ornamentation, with glazed finishes and - at the top of the range - small pieces of gold or silver. Ceramics came into their own with house building, drainage and irrigation.

But what of Portol in all this? Clearly, pottery required the right sort of earth, which there is. Another factor in the development was the existence of large almond trees. The shells from almonds were used to fire kilns. The local ceramics industry is reckoned to have been around for some 400 years. It was established by potters who found there earth that was a reddish colour and rich in clay. The pots that were made were to eventually be sold across the island and also exported. The concentration of businesses was never as great as in Palma - there were 43 workshops in the city in the late eighteenth century - but ones from the mid-nineteenth century, such as Sa Roca Llisa, are still with us.

And one of the products it makes is the curious siurell, of which it is said that the day when it is most typically bought is 30 June, the day of the Sant Marçal pilgrimage. Where does the "fang" fair take place? At the Sant Marçal showground, just a potter's throw away from Portol.

Carnival Crazies: Burying sardines

Francisco de Goya knew a thing or two about painting. He could turn his hand to pretty much any subject and do so with a remarkable ability for subversion and the portrayal of darkness. His painting of the burial of the sardine is a good example. Apparently there were at least two alternative versions, but the one most commonly known is an expression of supreme grotesqueness with the "sardine" symbolised by a grinning but disturbing face on a banner. Goya's painting, while celebrating the joy of the common man, is a satire on the church and on the crown. It was created during the reign of the absolutist monarch, Ferdinand VII, who had attempted to outlaw carnival and so the end-game of carnival, the burial of the sardine before the start of Lent.

Goya didn't invent the tradition of the burial of the sardine but he certainly helped to popularise it. Quite what its origins are is open to debate. The generally held theory is that it arose during the reign of Carlos III, so some time between 1759 and 1788. The king, the story goes, ordered that there be one final party before Lent and, because there was an abundance of sardines, these were the culinary centrepiece. However, because there were so many sardines and because the weather was particularly warm, there was an almighty great pong on account of sardines rotting in the heat. The solution was to bury them. As theories go, it seems as good as any, though the fact that there appears to be no documentary evidence to support this royal command could mean that it is just a tall tale.

Goya's painting (or paintings) most definitely assisted in spreading the sardine tradition and in also reinforcing the bizarre, profane and anti-establishment nature of carnival as a whole. Over the decades of turmoil through the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, carnival and the sardine were symbolic of the people taking over for a short while and poking fun at those who often made their lives a misery.

The burial of the sardine is nowadays absolutely central to the carnival story. It clearly isn't a Mallorcan tradition as such, but it finds expression here in Mallorca as much as it does on the mainland. Consequently, this week there will be sardine-burial ceremonies, most of which confirm that, on occasion, Mallorcans are more than capable of acting in a totally bonkers fashion.

A sardine, being a sardine, is only small. As such, it doesn't command a great presence when it comes to a spot of street-theatre, fiesta-style celebration. In order to overcome its diminutive nature, there are mock, giant sardines instead, and nowhere does this in any more peculiar fashion than the village of Portol in Marratxi. Its twenty-third burial of the sardine takes place on Shrove Tuesday, the last day of feasting before Ash Wednesday and Lent kick in. At 6pm, as has become traditional, a giant, comedy sardine will be paraded through the streets, carried as though by pallbearers, accompanied by suitably solemn music from the local band (music of a tongue-in-cheek variety, if it is possible to describe music in such a fashion) and by ladies of the village, clad in black mourning dresses and weeping (in a hammed-up, over-the-top manner). The weeping, so tradition suggests, is all to do with the people being saddened at the end of the carnival festivities and being faced with the prospect of several weeks of strict religious observance (or not). 

The Portol sardine, as is the case with some sardines elsewhere, doesn't actually get buried. The Mallorcans enjoy nothing more than setting fire to something, and little excuse is needed for a festivity to feature a roaring bonfire. The comedy sardine is toast, its final moments being marked by the sound of a trumpet reveille. Having committed the sardine to its fiery end, it is of course time to get eating. Cue, therefore, many a real sardine and any amount of strong alcoholic beverage plus, of course, the ubiquitous ball de bot folk dance.

The actual burial (or burning) usually requires some form of blessing, which may or may not be serious and may or may not actually feature clergy. In Pollensa, as an example, where a sardine is normally paraded with a collection of candles, the "clergy" can typically consist of blokes dressed as nuns and a priest who, on account of his appearance, would not normally get within a mile of a church.

So, take note. If you see some strange sorts wandering along the streets carrying something which looks as though it is destined for a funeral, don't be alarmed. In Mallorca, just as you are never far from the sea at any time of the year, at the end of the carnival, you are never far from a sardine.

Photo: Portol sardine, from Marratxi town hall, www.ajmarratxi.net