Revealing cartographies of the extractive landscapes of Mallorca: matter and memory

Abstract

The island of Mallorca is characterized by the geological presence of marès in a large part of its territory. The infinite samples of buildings built with this stone are the reflection of a material ecosystem that has transformed this calcarenite into a built landscape for centuries and of which quarries are its testimony. However, these extractive landscapes are projected from their condition of wounds to be erased so that, once they finish their mission, they end up disappearing from the territory. The dissociation of the prejudices related to them will be essential to reread them from a renewed look which, in turn, will allow them to be considered as landscapes of value intrinsically linked to the formation of the memory of the place. The aim of this article is to test a cartographic methodology that allows the reconstruction of the material and landscape memory of extractive landscapes and, at the same time, revealing the logics in which they are implanted in the territory, their structure and their evolution over time. The reading of these landscape patterns will make it possible to design their future management, conservation and planning in a compatible way with both the landscape where they are located and the maintenance of their activity, in addition to valuing them as parts of the island's landscape, as shapers of its territorial heritage and as cultural legacies of its inhabitants.