MAJORCAN COUNTERS
At some portals of granaries, cellars and mills, there are more or less vertical stripes of about 5 to 7 cm (the size is variable), placed one next to the other, sometimes linked by a horizontal line. This set of stripes are counters, according to a system used to count the products stored in those endret. It is an accounting at sight.
Its typology is variable. Some have vertical stripes, others are pure controlled energy, so that these stripes are limited by two horizontals, one at each end of the row joining the ends, and still others are unequal and totally free strokes.
The ritual of using a tack or other sharp object to carve grooves in the sandstone calls for a lot of strength and concentration, the narrow fist of the peasant holding the awl that cuts lasting grooves in the sandstone, persistence over time of said ritual, witness to the main accounting and its existence rooted in the land, to its own uses and customs. Behind each line, there is an ecological geography, where Majorcan man was immersed: language, sandstones, architecture, way of doing things and way of being.
If we observe the essence of these engravings, we see that they basically consist of vertical stripes separated from each other, establishing a dialogue between stripe and empty space: because the stripe has its own personality, it must be isolated, surrounded by a free space, without anything, it has to breathe. Emptiness and line follow each other, complement each other, one cannot exist without the other. It is an intuitive, subconscious representation of the forces of life in nature.
The dual, positive and negative systems of atoms and magnetism, mathematical binary systems (computers operate on base 1), the good and bad of moral codes, the yin-yang of Eastern philosophy, etc.
The author of these incisions was a man deeply rooted in the earth. When he had to start some work, he raised his eyes to heaven to choose the most propitious moment: saints, moon, sun, etc. Today we would say that he was part of an ecological system where he felt fully integrated. Only deep knowledge of the local and its environment allows us to be universal. This word comes from “universitas”, development of human and moral knowledge of man, an idea that clashes head-on with the idea of globalization, a word derived from “globe”, a superficial structure that has nothing inside, where the wild economy prevails over any other consideration, ecological, moral or aesthetic.
When contemplating these engravings, we must induce everything that is behind. It is an open window that allows us to look at another time, see the man who made them in their natural and human environment, recognize the heritage that he has left us and make our unwritten obligation of conservation and transmission of all this ancestral baggage to the generations to come.
OLD NUMBER CODE
Found in lintels of granaries, mills, warehouses, etc. or at the doors of the same in Mallorca.
Vertical or inclined strokes one after the other, representing each stroke in one unit.
Vertical traces or inclinats a darrere l’altre, representing each traç in a unitat.
Vertical or slanted strokes guided by one or two horizontal lines, each stroke represents one unit.
Vertical or inclined strokes grouped by a horizontal line that defines them.
Vertical or slanted strokes crossed by a horizontal line at the margins of which there are points or crosses that define a group.
Vertical or inclined lines of different height defining groups, crossed or not by a horizontal line.
OTHER COUNTERS
Age counters:
Stones stacked within circles ordered from right to left in units, tens, hundreds, etc.
It begins by placing stones one by one in a circle of units, located at the extreme right, when there are nine stones, continue counting and placing a stone in the circle of tens, remove all the stones from the circle of units and start again with the tens.
Cane and albó counters:
It was used to control debts contracted by means of notches or double notches in the cane or albó.
Double notch equals:
1 hard = 5 pesetas 20 reales.
Half notch equals:
10 reales = 2.5 pesetas
In order to be able to capture amounts through lines I have elaborated a code with Copy-Right -B-500790910 and accepted by the GENERAL REGISTRY OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY with number – 00/20013/421.
OWN CODE
INSPIRED BY THE PREVIOUS
Vertical or inclined lines grouped by a horizontal guide-line that limits and groups them. Each slanted or vertical stroke is a unit. The set of units grouped by the horizontal line represents the name of units. By arranging several numbers in a row we have the figure to represent.
