Hilarri (from

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

''hil'' 'dead' and ''harri'' 'stone') is the name given to disk-shaped funerary

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

s that are typical of the Basque Country. These funerary steles present a disc-shaped head facing the rising

sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

on a

trapezoid A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is called a trapezoid () in American and Canadian English. In British and other forms of English, it is called a trapezium (). A trapezoid is necessarily a Convex polygon, convex quadri ...

al stand. They belong to an old tradition throughout all of the Western Mediterranean, which includes parts of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

, but today they are mainly found in the Basque Country.

Examples

Image:Hilarri-4symb.jpg, A

cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...

and a rosette by sector. Image:Hilarri_PawCross.jpg, A

cross pattée A cross pattée, cross patty or cross paty, also known as a cross formy or cross formée (french: croix pattée, german: Tatzenkreuz), is a type of Christian cross with arms that are narrow at the centre, and often flared in a curve or straight ...

and text 'our grave'. Image:Orhoitzapena.jpg, A

lauburu The lauburu (Basque: ''lau'' ("four") + ''buru'' ("head")) is an ancient hooked cross with four comma-shaped heads and the most widely known traditional symbol of the Basque Country and the Basque people. In the past, it has also been associate ...

and text 'Memory'. Image:Hilarri_Stars.jpg, A cross and many kinds of stars.

Ornamentation

Typology

The disc may be decorated by: # geometric

symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...

s, generally organizing the disc into four or eight circle sectors (marked or implicit), a structuring of space that recalls the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

; # a single rosette; # a

or other figures that indicate a rotation; # more specific figures. A smaller rosette, a Christian cross or a text may be added on the stand.

Geometric symbols

Geometric symbols are regularly distributed on the disc within 4 or 8 circle sectors. The quarters are often delimited by a cross as: * a flowered cross (flory), often reinforced by tangent arcs linking arms to each other; * a kind of

with concave ends evoking the

Maltese cross The Maltese cross is a cross symbol, consisting of four " V" or arrowhead shaped concave quadrilaterals converging at a central vertex at right angles, two tips pointing outward symmetrically. It is a heraldic cross variant which developed f ...

; * an

Occitan cross The Occitan cross (also called ''cross of Occitania'', ''cross of Languedoc'', ''cross of Toulouse''; heraldically ''cross cleché, pommetty and voided'') is a heraldic cross, today chiefly used as a symbol of Occitania. The design was probably ...

, similar to the former but with, for each arm, 2 concavities delimited by 3 tips. They may be very simple or well worked. Sometimes, a

diagonal In geometry, a diagonal is a line segment joining two vertices of a polygon or polyhedron, when those vertices are not on the same edge. Informally, any sloping line is called diagonal. The word ''diagonal'' derives from the ancient Greek δ ...

secondary cross completes the figure. Each sector is decorated with various small decorative symbols such as stars, moons, potent crosses or rosettes. They may be different in each sector. Sometimes, depictions of tools point out the trade of the deceased, whose name is seldom mentioned. Stylized hands open upwards may also be found.

Rosettes

Many steles are decorated by single rosettes. In this case the order of symmetry is often 6. The most frequent figures are: *rosettes made up of 6 laurel leaves (with 2 in a horizontal plane); *rosettes with 8 to 36 petals radiating from a central spot; *stars as

pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle aroun ...

hexagram , can be seen as a compound composed of an upwards (blue here) and downwards (pink) facing equilateral triangle, with their intersection as a regular hexagon (in green). A hexagram ( Greek language, Greek) or sexagram (Latin) is a six-pointed ...

or octogram (with 5, 6 or 8 points) ; sometimes an armed-cross is superimposed, arms being inserted between points; *a square made up of 4 smaller squares; *one circular string making up 4 or 6 loops around a central spot or circle, or 2 of them doing 8 loops; these rosettes seem static but in fact, loops have a sense of rotation that can be figured (the cord toward the right upside) or not.

Figures indicating a rotation

Some figures are designed to give an idea of rotation, generally clockwise, a sense which is often analyzed as positive. The most popular figures are : *the

; *solar rosettes (of approximately 16 to 36 wings evoking a camera shutter). One Navarrese hilarri presents a kind of lauburu made of four walking legs. This motive cannot be considered as usual in the Basque Country.

Other symbols

Some more specific figures can be encountered as: *a figure that looks like a $ symbol, made up of 3 vertical lines, crossing 3 horizontal segments, linked to each other as a wide S; it could be a symbolic representation of weaving; *

Christogram A Christogram ( la, Monogramma Christi) is a monogram or combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a Christian symbolism, religious symbol within the Christian Church. One of the oldes ...

s (IHS + cross); *some rare human representations can also be noticed;

s could have been a stylization of human body. They are all identified with Christ as the sun rising after

Resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, which ...

, evident also in Basque church symbols and the imagery of Loyola's

Jesuit Order , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

Surrounding

The surrounding of the disc is often decorated, giving an impression of a shining sun.

Modern hilarris

Many innovative ornamentations can be observed in modern hilarris. As an example, in

Zuberoa Soule (Basque: Zuberoa; Zuberoan/ Soule Basque: Xiberoa or Xiberua; Occitan: ''Sola'') is a former viscounty and French province and part of the present-day Pyrénées-Atlantiques ''département''. It is divided into two cantons of the arrondi ...

, the traditional song "''Orhiko txoria''" (the bird of Orhy) has led to many representations of a bird flying towards this emblematic mountain. Others have seen connections to a prehistoric solar cult arriving with the

Mauri Mauri (from which derives the English term "Moors") was the Latin designation for the Berber population of Mauretania, located in the part of North Africa west of Numidia, in present-day northern Morocco and northwestern Algeria. Name ''Mauri' ...

Jentillak The jentil (or jentilak with the Basque plural), are a race of giants in the Basque mythology. This word meaning ''gentile'', from Latin ''gentilis'', was used to refer to pre-Christian civilizations and in particular to the builders of megalith ...

and related to the Egyptian

Horus Horus or Heru, Hor, Har in Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as god of kingship and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the P ...

, consort or manifestation of the

Ishtar Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine justice, and political power. She was originally worshiped in S ...

(the star) of Fertility among the desert and Sea People.

References

* ''Contribution à l'étude de la stèle discoïdale basque'', Michel Duvert Association Lauburu, Bulletin du Musée Basque n° 49 & 50, 1976. * ''Les stèles discoïdales et l'art funéraire basque'', Lauburu. Funerary steles Basque culture