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Ancestral grazing land

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Posted on 2016-06-17 in
35.ortofoto sel

Current view of an ancestral grazing site in Barazar, 2014.

The Spanish term sel and its Basque equivalents korta and saroi originally referred to marked off grassland where livestock in the care of a herder grazed. A pillar known as haustarria stood in the middle displaying a cross at the top. Four more boundary markers placed at the four cardinal points defined the site. (more…)

Traditional uses of ferns

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Posted on 2016-02-26 in
Metearen argazkia

Stack of fern. Arrazola (Bizkaia), c. 1960. Jose Antonio Retolaza.

In the past ferns had a great variety of uses. The common bracken, Pteridium aquilinum, a fern species familiar to us all, has tradionally been used for animal bedding in stables. It was harvested in the autumn, when brown, and stored while it was dry. There were different storage methods, stacks of fern, known as ira-metak in the Basque-speaking area of the territory, among others. (more…)

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