Earliest salt working in the world: From excavation to microscopy at the prehistoric sites of Ţolici and Lunca (Romania)

Sordoillet, Dominique; Weller, Olivier; Rouge, Nicolas; Buatier, Martine; Sizun, Jean‐Pierre

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2017.11.003

Cited by 19 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…Most protohistoric briquetage industries described in the literature appeared to use a salinas system to produce a brine and how "bitterns" were dealt with in that type of salt production process is rarely described in detail (Harding, 2013). Recent studies of protohistoric salt production by briquetage increasingly pay attention to salt in ceramic materials, employing a variety of modern analytical techniques to prove their salt production function (Flad et al, 2005;Graham et al, 2015;Macphail et al, 2012;Raad et al, 2014;Sandu et al, 2012;Sordoillet et al, 2018;Tencariu et al, 2015). Results are not always conclusive, since often no hard evidence is found for the use of these ceramics as brine/salt containers (e.g., Raad et al, 2014).…”

Section: General Discussion and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Remarkably, in archaeological studies on early salt production the focus has been on material remains in the form of salterns, furnaces, kilns, and ceramics used, whereas fundamental aspects of the salt production process have received far lesser attention. Thus, geochemical analyses rarely go beyond the concentrations of sodium and chlorine in archaeological materials (see e.g., Alessandri et al, 2019;Flad et al, 2005;Macphail, Crowther, & Berna, 2012;Raad, Li, & Flad, 2014;Sandu, Weller, Stumbea, & Alexianu, 2012;Sordoillet, Weller, Rouge, Buatier, & Sizun, 2018;Tencariu, Alexianu, Cotiugă, Vasilache, & Sandu, 2015). Moreover, most of the limited number of archaeological studies incorporating geochemical aspects are from the last decade and of these only a few deal with early Italian salt production sites (see Alessandri et al, 2019).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Protohistoric briquetage at Puntone (Tuscany, Italy): principles and processes of an industry based on the leaching of saline lagoonal sediments

et al. 2020

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A protohistoric (c.10th–5th c. BC) briquetage site at Puntone (Tuscany, Italy) was studied to unravel the salt production processes and materials involved. Geophysical surveys were used to identify kilns, pits, and dumps. One of these pits and a dump were excavated, followed by detailed chemical and physical analyses of the materials encountered. The pit had been used for holding brine, obtained by leaching of lagoonal sediment over a sieve, that afterwards was discarded to form large dumps. Phases distinguished indicate that the pit filled with fine sediment and was regularly “cleaned.” The presence of ferroan‐magnesian calcite in the pit fill testifies to the prolonged presence of anoxic brine. The production processes could be reconstructed in detail by confronting the analytical results with known changes in composition of a brine upon evaporation. These pertain in particular to the accumulation of “bitterns” and increased B (boron) concentrations in a residual brine. Both could be traced in the materials studied, and were found to be far more indicative than the ubiquitously studied concentrations of Cl and Na.

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Section: General Discussion and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Protohistoric briquetage at Puntone (Tuscany, Italy): principles and processes of an industry based on the leaching of saline lagoonal sediments

et al. 2020

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“…The earliest occurrences of the briquetage practice are attested in the Chalcolithic sites of Cacica (Suceava) and Poiana Slatinei (Lunca, Moldavia), in Romania [46–49]. Additional sites occur in the Balkans, particularly the site of Provadia-Solnitsata (Bulgaria), where salt was produced using the boiling technique since the middle of VI millennium BCE [50–53].…”

Section: Background and (Proto)historical Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salt or fish (or salted fish)? The Bronze Age specialised sites along the Tyrrhenian coast of Central Italy: New insights from Caprolace settlement

et al. 2019

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In 2017, an excavation led by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology and in collaboration with the Tor Vergata University of Rome, took place on two small islands in the Caprolace lagoon (Sabaudia, Italy), where Middle Bronze Age layers had previously been reported. Combining the results of an environmental reconstruction of the surroundings and a detailed study of the pottery assemblages, we were able to trace a specialised area on the southern island, in all probability devoted to salt production by means of the briquetage technique. The latter basically consists of boiling a brine through which a salt cake is obtained. The technique was widespread all over Europe, from Neolithic to Roman Times. Since the evidence points to an elite-driven workshop, this result has deep implications for the development of the Bronze Age socio-economic framework of Central Italy. Pottery evidence also suggests that in the Bronze Age sites along the Tyrrhenian coast of Central Italy where briquetage has already been hypothesised, more complex processes may have taken place. On the northern island, we collected a large number of so-called pedestals, which are characteristic features of briquetage, while chemical analyses point to salt or fish sauce production, like the roman liquamen, in a Middle Bronze Age domestic context.

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“…Two techniques seem to have been practiced: pouring natural brine Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01228-6. onto combustion structures during the Early Neolithic and evaporation in specific ceramic containers from the Chalcolithic onwards (Sordoillet et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Could the grasses have played a role in the earliest salt exploitation? Phytoliths analysis of prehistoric salt spring from Hălăbutoaia - Ţolici (Romania)

Danu

Delhon

Weller

2020

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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The salt spring exploitation from Hălăbutoaia - Ţolici (Neamț County, Romania) dates back to the Early Neolithic and lasted throughout Chalcolithic. The deposit stratigraphy is estimated at 8 m and covers 2500 years of history (c. 6000–3500 BCE). In order to document the possible use of plants, particularly of the grasses, in the salt production process, we realized a detailed study of phytoliths preserved in several archaeological levels of Hălăbutoaia site. The most identified morphotypes come from grass family. Analysis revealed an important representation of inflorescence bracts phytoliths (especially Elongate dendritic) showing the anthropogenic origin of the assemblages. Bilobate are also well represented. These forms attest the presence of wild panicoid grasses (e.g. wild millet) and/or cultivated millets in the area. In some very punctual assemblages, forms produced by dicots are well represented. Considering the low phytoliths production by dicots plants, it involves a special accumulation of these types of plants that could be related to woody plants used as fuel for salt production. It is very possible that grasses had a very important role in pyrotechnology used to produce salt, either as the main fuel or as a mean for controlling the temperature or even as a firelighter.

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Earliest salt working in the world: From excavation to microscopy at the prehistoric sites of Ţolici and Lunca (Romania)

Cited by 19 publications

References 28 publications

Protohistoric briquetage at Puntone (Tuscany, Italy): principles and processes of an industry based on the leaching of saline lagoonal sediments

Protohistoric briquetage at Puntone (Tuscany, Italy): principles and processes of an industry based on the leaching of saline lagoonal sediments

Salt or fish (or salted fish)? The Bronze Age specialised sites along the Tyrrhenian coast of Central Italy: New insights from Caprolace settlement

Could the grasses have played a role in the earliest salt exploitation? Phytoliths analysis of prehistoric salt spring from Hălăbutoaia - Ţolici (Romania)

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