Marius Alexianu

Hallstatt, Vallée de la Seille, and Halle/Saale have been, for more than a century, famous European archaeological sites connected to the prehistoric exploitation of salt. The number of such sites has gradually increased, with the last three to four decades witnessing an unprecedented research impetus across all continents, which consolidated the syntagma Archaeology of Salt. Starting in the 1970s, Southeastern Europe became the spotlight in this regard, producing evidence of the worlds’ oldest (Neolithic and Chalcolithic) production of recrystallized salt from salt springs (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Romania, and Bulgaria). Southeastern Europe is one of the rare areas of the continent with considerable ethnoarchaeological potential. It began to be valued through significant approaches beginning in the 1980s. Despite the progress, this potential is still far from being exhausted. 

The importance of ethnoarchaeological research in these resilient areas is enormous for the proper understanding of many archaeological situations in Europe and beyond. This transgressive assertion is justified by the appeal to the classic distinction between the two types of ethnographic analogies. The first operates in the conditions where the two sets of data – archaeological and ethnographic, respectively – are very disparate in time or space or in both and no connection can be demonstrated between the culture that produced the archaeological traces and the culture that provides the ethnographic analogies. The second type of analogy is practiced when it is possible to attest a connection in time and/or space between archaeological and ethnographic cultures; in this situation, a degree of continuity can be assumed between past and present. This latter kind of analogy was the basis for the definition of the direct historical method. Thus, most researchers believe that this type is most likely to be correct because the time, space, and cultural affinity conditions that produced the two sets of data under comparison are almost analogous.

Romania’s ethnoarchaeological potential for salt was highlighted in the last decade of the last century by a pioneering study. In many mountain and hill micro-areas, Romania meets the ideal conditions for undertaking ethnoarchaeological research focused on investigating the role of salt in the evolution of prehistoric communities...

Les ouvrages de synthese sur la civilisation des Daces libres it !'est des Carpates out souligne l'importance de l'etude des amphores, produits romains qui ont ete decouverts dans tous les etablissements, ce qui prouve l'amplitude des relations commerciales daco-romaines dans une zone situee extra fines imperii. Si les amphores avec inscriptions ne representent, certainement, qu'un cas
particulier des amphores en general, elles contiennent des informations supplementaires quant aux divers aspects du commerce.

The existence in Romania of enormous salt deposits and numerous saline springs, which are still exploited traditionally, provides a remarkable opportunity to study the toponymic and anthroponymic reflections of the referent "salt ". The Romanian halotoponyms and halohydronyms are of Latin, Slavic, Hungarian and Turkish origin, in different proportions. The present approach starts from D. Moldoveanu's original theory of toponymic fields. Salt-related anthroponyms are almost entirely of Latin or Slavic origin. The mark left by anthroponyms linked to salt in Romanian is weaker than that of toponyms of the same kind.

In the Subcarpathian area of Moldavia, there are several salt sources that have been exploited since the Early Neolithic and up to the present. Therefore, the authors have proposed an ethnoarchaeological research programme with the following main aims: 1. Identification and plotting of the salt sources on the map; 2. Carrying out surface research around salt sources in order to detect possible traces of pre-industrial exploitation; 3. Carrying out systematic excavations in the area where salt sources are nowadays exploited; 4. Carrying out complex ethnoarchaeological enquiries on the present-day exploitation of salt sources,· 5. Using ethnographic analogies in order to understand archaeological situations. The 1992 research enabled us to make a classification. of the settlements in relation to the salt sources and to question the relations between (a) the use of salt in a liquid or recrystallized form, (b) the problem of controlling and of supervising the salt sources, (c) the emergence of specialized groups related to salt exploitation (e.g., producers of recrystallized salt and carriers of salty water and of recrystallized salt), (d) the techniques used in order to obtain recrystallized salt balls and (e) the importance of salt sources for the development of different archaeological cultures.

This study is dedicated to the myriad and varied toponymy generated in Romanian by salt springs, by uniting the semantic and toponymic approaches. The recourse to the theory of toponymic fields led to the elaboration of a place-naming model that represents the potential toponymic field through polarization and differentiation of halocrenonyms. The connection established by the human mind between discrepant geographical entities (salt springs, mountains, hills, creeks, roads, etc.) evidences the attempt to anthropize the natural environment, by mentally organizing the landscape around a core element (the salt spring), meant to appropriate and ultimately dominate it. Testing this model in other languages can challenge or confirm (albeit partially) it.

Starting from the diachronic impact of salt on humanity's numerous activities and spiritual reflexes, the author calls for establishing a new humanist discipline: the anthropology of salt. This first exertion lists the themes developed around salt and the sciences/disciplines involved primarily or sectorially in researching this mineral. The anthropology of salt is a discipline of the future, which will gradually become autonomous as the inter-and trans-disciplinary approaches to common salt will prevail over the mono-or multidisciplinary ones.

Our approach emphasizes on the importance of the first forms of salt springs exploitation meant to obtain recrystallized salt for the development of prehistoric human communities within the continental inlands of Europe. Although it does not compare with the monumental dimension of World Heritage, the exploitation of some salt springs in Eastern Romania goes back around 8 millennia; they may be the oldest such exploitations in the world, as proven by  14 C calibrated data. What differentiates Romanian salt springs from other famous similar areas in Europe is the continuity of exploitation and utilization of natural brine.

Actually, these resilient behaviours explain the creation of a whole and complex universe of salt, which also represents a unique point of reference within the intangible World Heritage. It is through this association in variable proportions between tangible (non-monumental) and intangible that these salt springs comprising the oldest traces of salt exploitation can be considered elements of World Heritage. Today, important personalities in the fields of archaeology, anthropology and history posit that salt is a major reference for the development of the entire humanity.

Obviously, the breakthrough of this idea requires awareness efforts targeting, on one hand, local communities in those areas wand, on the other, national and international scientific and cultural environments concerned with the World Heritage. In this context, a proper motivation is the fact that the last two decades have witnessed an intensification of research on salt, which turned this topic one of the major themes within European archaeology and ethno-archaeology.

In terms of local community awareness concerning the importance of salt springs in the economic development of a (micro) area over time, it is worth underlining mostly the specialists’ efforts of presenting this topic in the media. Moreover, the impact of a recent initiative of the two museums in the area (Piatra Neamț and Târgu Neamț)—establishing distinct sections that represent, by using museum-inspired means, both archaeological vestiges and traditional practices of natural brine exploitation and utilization—will prove its extent in time.

Certain local authorities and private entrepreneurs have pinpointed that valorising tourist areas comprising the oldest traces of salt exploitation in Romania is an imminent issue. The greatest challenge is finding a balance between the civilization improvements (upgraded access roads, upgrading operating areas, etc.) and the protection of still-alive traditional practices of salt exploitation and use, within rural areas.

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the fundamental credibility of certain lexicographical and paroemiographical sources regarding the barter of slaves for salt practised by aristocrats from the interior of Thrace, from at least as early as the fourth century B.C.
-----------------
Le but de cet article est de démontrer la crédibilité (même partielle) de quelques sources lexicographiques et parémiographiques, surtout en ce qui concerne le troc esclaves-sel pratiqué par les membres de l'aristocratie thrace d'une zone intérieure du pays, à partir au moins du ive s. av. J.-C.

Based on over 300 ethnological investigations conducted in resilient areas of the extra-Carpathian area of Romania, for the most part in the framework of two ethnoarchaeological research projects, the author proposes a new spatial model of salt supplying.
Diametrically opposed to site catchment analysis, this
model shifts the emphasis on the role of a natural
resource of the utmost importance for the subsistence
and development of the human communities settled  concentrically around the salt springs and salt outcrops.
The applicability in the field of archaeology of the proposed ethnological model presents a high potential.

This article proposes the application of a saturated model in ethnoarchaeological research. This logical-mathematical model addresses the issue of the number of parameters required for constructing a well-founded ethnoarchaeological discourse. Our approach targets two levels of extension, a general one, on a global level, and a particular one, concerning Romania. Each artefact, each archaeological or ethnographical phenomenon contains a finite multitude of intrinsic parameters, but their identification and understanding depends on the evolution of various sciences and the development of new research directions. In idiographic cases, the knowledge of these parameters depends of the development of ethnoarchaeology in various countries. The employment of a saturated model in ethnoarchaeology presents notable implications of a gnoseological and methodological nature, but the most important is that regarding the research strategy. Because “living societies”, at the global level, and resilient groups within developed societies are all threatened by disappearance, we stress the necessity of intensifying ethnological researches (within ethnoarchaeological ones).

The paper aims to provide the scientific explanation for an original folk procedure for curdling milk, recorded in certain areas with salt springs from the Eastern Subcarpathians of Romania. The chemical analyses of the brine collected from a number of salt springs indicate, primarily, a very high content of Ca2+, Sr2+ and Mg2+ cations, ions responsible for the coagulation of the whey casein or other proteins.

Latin authors mentioned the unusual process of obtaining salt by spraying salt water on hot ashes. At the end of the 18th century this method was confirmed ethnographically. Archaeological research has demonstrated that there is evidence for this process as early as 6050 BC. Analysis of the salts produced following an archeological experiment demonstrated that this was, in fact, a matter of obtaining the first food supplement in the history of the world.

The Subcarpathian area of Moldavia represents the ideal framework to perform extensive ethnoarchaeological research as there are here over 200 salt water springs near which are found archaeological deposits related to the exploitation of the salt water.  Nowadays, these deposits are still exploited at an unexpected degree of intensity by the members of rural as well as of urban communities. The main research focuses on the identification of all salt springs in sub-Carpathian Moldavia and on the completion of complex ethnoarchaeological research (exploitation, use, distribution networks, commerce, hunting, halotherapy, social contexts, ethnoscience, symbolistics, etc.).

This study proposes a re-evaluation of salt resources for the Cucuteni-Tripolye area, as well as for the steppe region North of the Black Sea. Previous attempts to identify salt resources within the territory between the Moldavian piedmont and the Volga basin took into account almost exclusively the rock salt and salt springs of the Eastern Carpathians. The steppe and forest-steppe region of Ukraine was considered a "salt-starved region" and, therefore, it was inferred that the Eastern Carpathians were the main provider of salt for Cucuteni-Tripolye settlements, as well as for the Neolithic and Chalcolithic pastoralists inhabiting the northern coast of the Black Sea. Relying on this assumption, archeologists further conceived various models of dynamic material and cultural exchanges among the populations of the region. Our multidisciplinary approach points to a salt resource that was consistently overlooked by the salt archaeologists. We provide hydrogeological, historical, ethnological and climatic evidence that on the northern Black Sea, despite its often invoked low salinity in comparison with other inland seas, the phenomenon of natural crystallization of the salt, as well as the widespread exploitation and trade of salt taken from salt lake deposits were present since immemorial times to our present day in an almost unbroken sequence. The flourishing Cucuteni-Tripolye culture must have had therefore (at least) two salt bases -first, the salt extraction lakes from the Northern Black Sea (which had a spectacular rate of production), and, secondly, the (regionally important) salt springs of Moldavia -, which between them constituted a territory fully provided with salt.

Les textes antiques en grec et en latin concernant les diverses modalités d’obtention du sel ont bénéficié de l’attention des spécialistes de l’archéologie du sel. Pourtant certains de ces textes ont été commentés à un niveau insuffisamment analytique: certains passages peuvent contenir, comme nous espérons qu’il va résulter des lignes suivantes, quelques suggestions qui, par la grille offerte par les recherches récentes (en nous limitant aux recherches de Roumanie, nous mentionnons d’une manière sélective : URSULESCU NICOLAE, 1977, 1996; DUMITROAIA GHEORGHE, 1987, 1994;  ANDRONIC MUGUR, 1989; MONAH DAN, 1991; ALEXIANU MARIUS et alii, 1992) concernant l’exploitation des sources salées, peuvent s’avérer particulièrement utiles à leur tour dans les étapes de projection, de déroulement et d’interprétation des explorations archéologiques . Les mêmes informations peuvent être vérifiées par l’archéologie expérimentale.

Le dernier temps, grâce à quelques projets concernant l’exploitation des sources salées en Moldavie, la recherche dans ce domaine a enregistré des progrès notables, qui,  d’un part, ont confirmé ou ont infirmé quelques résultats de recherches antérieures et,  d’autre part, ont décelé de nouvelles situations à analyser et à interpréter. Mais, vu la  vraie complexité du phénomène de l’exploitation de sources salées non seulement en Moldavie, mais aussi à l’échelle de tout le cordon extra carpatique de la Roumanie, on peut affirmer que d’une certaine façon les choses sont au début. Cependant le nombre des informations de nature archéologique, ethnoarchéologique ethnographique et littéraire est accru dans un tel degré qu’on peut considérer que la base de données dont on dispose est assez considérable pour pouvoir traiter certains aspects d’une manière plus analytique. Même si la base de données présente encore un caractère assez aléatoire, formuler des hypothèses fondées à partir de ces données souvent empiriques ne peut que faire avancer notre degré de connaissance et de compréhension concernant ce domaine, avec des implications dans toutes les phases d’une recherche archéologique et ethnoarchéologique digne de ce nom.
Nous considérons que les données dont on dispose jusqu’à présent  nous permettent de poser la question des modes d’implantation de l’habitat en fonction de sources salées. Ce thème est – on s’est rendu immédiatement compte – d’une complexité extraordinaire. Par notre présente démarche  nous nous sommes proposés d’abord d’esquisser une typologie de l’habitat par rapport aux sources salées à partir des données archéologiques et ethnographiques et puis d’attirer l’attention sur quelques directions de recherches à suivre durant les explorations futures qui doivent être orientées et centrées aussi sur cet aspect particulièrement important.
Nous proposons donc la typologie suivante, plus nuancée que celle proposée par nous, il y a plus d’une décennie (ALEXIANU MARIUS et alii, 1992, p.163-165):
1. Points d’approvisionnement avec de l’eau salée.
2. Points d’exploitation des sources salées à caractère saisonnier.
3. Habitats saisonniers d’exploitation des sources salées.
4. Habitats qui s’approvisionnaient directement aux sources salées.
4a. Habitats saisonniers de type bergerie (en roumain “stână”).
4b.  Habitats proprement dits.
5.Points fortifiés ou petites citadelles de surveillance et de protection armée des sources salées.

Session abstract: The Anthropology of Salt (AoS) is a very recent metadiscipline (Alexianu M., Anthropology of Salt: a first conceptual approach, 2012; 2016). Many of its concepts are in the process of crystallization, and for this reason the theoretical approaches must be multiplied. Following is a number of questions that require more nuanced answers: what are man's main reactions towards this mineral; which are the salt-related themes of interest for research; which are the applicable sciences; how can AoS be defined; what are the goals, principles and methods of this new meta-discipline; what are the roles of the mono-, pluri-, inter-, and trans-disciplinary approaches in the development of AoS; how can AoS generate a specific complex heuristic model? Obviously, any other theoretical approaches are welcomed.. Please visit the congress' website for more information on the event and for submitting a paper —

Session abstract: In order to obtain a holistic view of man's perceptions and reactions to salt, special consideration should also be given to those aspects considered minor and therefore usually neglected. These are divided into two categories: written testimonies and oral testimonies.

The first category includes: (1) Passages on salt found in writings with very different purposes, e.g. Literary works (in prose or lyrics), travel journals, memoirs, etc.; (2) Passages about salt in various works written in idioms without international circulation; and (3) Episodes neglected in the history of salt-related sciences or technologies. Oral testimonies refer to relevant salt events in which various persons took part or of which they heard. They must be valued by introducing them into the scientific circuit.

Our session is open to researchers all over the world interested in capitalizing on this intangible, neglected patrimony. Our session also encourages the participation of people outside the academic world, whose unique testimonies about salt are particularly precious for scientific research.

Please visit the congress' website for more information on the event and for submitting a paper — http://saluniversalis.com/submit-paper/

Call for papers: First International Congress on the Anthropology of Salt
20–24 August 2015
Iasi, Romania

http://ethnosalro.uaic.ro/salt2015


We are glad to invite you the attend the “First International Congress on the Anthropology of Salt”, organized between the 20th and 24th of August 2015 by the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, Romania — http://ethnosalro.uaic.ro/salt2015

Important dates
20 June 2015 — Abstracts submission deadline
30 June 2015 — Notification of abstract acceptance
20–24 August 2015 — Congress days

No registration fee! — The congress is organised within the framework of project The ethno-archaeology of the salt springs and salt mountains from the extra-Carpathian areas of Romania financially supported by the Romanian National Council of Scientific Research.  The organisers will cover the expenses regarding the registration fee, the welcoming dinner and a study trip to the Targu Ocna salt mine in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania.

Abstracts
Abstracts should be around 200–300 words, and may also include one image. Please also provide the following information: (1) title; (2) name and affiliation of the author(s); and (3) presentation type (oral or poster). Abstracts should be sent to ethnosalro@gmail.com, not later than the 31st of May 2015.

Please share this call with anyone who might be interested in attending, and this includes not only anthropologists and archaeologists, but also historians, geographers, linguists, etc.


You can find more information on the event on its dedicated webpage: http://ethnosalro.uaic.ro/salt2015


*Argument*

Common salt (sodium chloride) is an invisible object for archaeological research, but the ancient texts, the history, the ethnography and our everyday life confirm that both Man and Animal cannot live without it. Salt is a primordial reference for humanity. This “fifth element” is universal in a double sense, diachronically and diatopically. How can archaeology and related disciplines or sciences approximate this soluble good, this “white gold”, this invisible past?

From the diatopic and diachronic perspective, common salt—with all its natural or artificial metamorphoses—has influenced the humanity in the most diverse aspects. This is why, within a brief enumeration, the salt-related research themes are intriguingly various: explorations (hunting for salt), exploitation techniques, techniques to obtain different products, exploitation and use tools, transport and storage containers, human and animal feeding, conservation (meat, bacon, cheese, vegetables, green goods, fruits). The themes also include manufacture-related uses (including the construction of salt houses), mythology, religion, cult, rituals, beliefs, superstitions, mentalities, secret societies, magic, vows, curses, prohibitions, popular medicine, sexuality, economy, hide working, population, alchemical procedures, scientific and cultural representations, treatment of the deceased, barter, commerce, contraband, robbery.

On the other hand, the themes also include human and animal mobility, the attraction exerted on savage beasts, symbolic uses, folk literature (stories, tales, and proverbs) and cult literature, the control of salt resources, conflicts, strategic value, geographic perceptions, professions related to salt exploitation and uses, economic, legal and administrative regulations, vocabulary, toponymy, anthroponomy and, of course, the list can go on.

All these themes already constitute a study object for an impressive number of sciences, disciplines, or sub-disciplines, such as archaeology, heritage studies, history, ethnography, ethnoarchaeology, economic anthropology, food sciences, statistics, sociology, geology, mineralogy, geography, hydrology, botany, chemistry, medicine, pharmacology, ethology, theology, agronomy, symbology, linguistics, folklore studies, cultural studies, literary studies, hermeneutics, legal sciences, etc. Obviously, some themes must be approached only in an interdisciplinary vision.

For more information, please visit the dedicated website of the congress — http://ethnosalro.uaic.ro/salt2015

In current thinking, the heritage of salt comprises two distinct entities: the natural and, respectively, the cultural heritage. The latter is formed by the tangible and the intangible heritage. Difficulties in understanding the heritage of salt arise from issue of defining its natural heritage facet. Our view is that we can speak of a natural heritage of salt in all cases where there is no anthropic exploitation actions. But when a natural heritage entity (e.g., a salt spring or salt outcrop) starts to be exploited, it acquires ipso facto, but only for the areas of intervention, a cultural character, as it then represents evidence of human behaviour. In these cases, the areas of natural heritage convert to ones of cultural heritage, warranting the investigation of all its parameters (natural and anthropic).
From this perspective, the tangible heritage of salt encompasses the tools and installations that caused the change of the natural heritage, and also the traces left by the exploitation. All these elements should enjoy our undivided attention. Obviously, the management of the traces left by the exploitation and of the archaeological vestiges demand completely distinct approaches and solutions. A particular issue is the management of the so-called briquetage remains. On account of their lacklustre and exclusively fragmentary state, briquetage has seldom benefited from adequate management, despite the fact that they represented illo tempore a revolutionary cultural-technological answer to the social necessity to transform brine into crystallised salt of a definite shape, the so-called salt cakes. Another problem concerning the tools and installations of the quarry operations is the differentiation, often hard to operate, between the archaeological heritage and the “ethnographic” one.
The intangible heritage of salt has been, in our opinion, entirely insufficiently capitalised so far for understanding the multiple dimensions that salt and its exploitation, under various forms, have generated on the diatopic and diachronic levels. The investigation of this heritage can even determine alterations of archaeological research strategies, as in, for instance, extending the spatial parameters of brine/salt distribution in archaeological time.
This triadic unity — the natural heritage, tangible heritage, and intangible heritage of salt — requires a holistic approach centered on the idea of intrinsic connections between the three categories. And this, because the heritage of salt is the intersection of the human spirit and actions with salt, this defining element of the natural environment with determinative power on the sustenance, well-being ,and civilisation of human communities from all time and everywhere.

Anthropology of Salt: Theoretical Approaches

Marius Alexianu

The remarkable number of disciplines and technologies related to salt, and the staggering list of uses known so far, reflect, ipso facto, the multitude of human reactions towards the non-metal mineral NaCl. In the context of this paper, the term ‘reactions’ should be understood as perceptions, representations, spiritual constructions, cognitive undertakings, practical actions, social organization and stratification, juridical and administrative regulations, decisions of a political, economic, military nature, etc.
In a first and inherently incomplete taxonomic attempt, these reactions can be organized into:
- epistemic reactions (ranging from the empirical ones, to those of the highest scientific level, from all the fields involved in the research of salt from Earth or outer space);
- spiritual reactions: reflections of salt in mythologies, religions, cults, rituals, beliefs, superstitions, mentalities, literature, cinema (particularly documentaries), music, visual arts, etc.;
- pragmatic reactions: exploitation practices (including exploitation tools, transport and storage containers, means of transportation, etc.), preindustrial and industrial uses, experiments, mitigating the adverse effects of salt, desalination, etc.
- other reactions: for instance, of social, political, economic, military, linguistic, juridical, or administrative nature, mass-media, and so on.
This taxonomy, which should naturally be refined and extended in the future, provides sufficient premises for formulating a preliminary definition of AoS:
The Anthropology of Salt studies the human reactions (and their derived effects) towards salt.
Starting from this definition, research can be directed along different subfields of anthropology, grouped in turn as follows:
- anthropology of nature, anthropology of landscape, anthropology of place and space, anthropology of animals;
- cultural anthropology, historical anthropology, anthropology of religion, linguistic anthropology, anthropology of social media, anthropology of art and media;
- anthropology of knowledge, anthropology of science, anthropology of science and technology, anthropology of consciousness;
- pragmatic anthropology, economic anthropology, anthropology of industrial work, anthropology of transport;
- social anthropology, anthropology of work, anthropology of law and society;
- medical anthropology, anthropology of health, anthropology of obesity, anthropology of sport, anthropology of death and dying.

The fundamental scope of the Anthropology of Salt is to provide a holistic view, or one that respects the exigencies of the saturated model, of the role of salt in the evolution of human communities, from anywhere and anytime, in the evolution of human society on the global level.
For reaching this goal, the fundamental objectives are:
- disseminating the concept of ‘Anthropology of Salt’ among specialists from various disciplines or sciences directly involved in the research on salt;
- disseminating the concept of AoS among specialists from general anthropology and specialists from various subfields of anthropology;
- edifying a holistic image on the study of salt in various branches of knowledge;
- applying the anthropological vision to this holistic image;
- continuing and intensifying the organization of scientific meetings on AoS, attended by specialists from various disciplines and sciences;
- intensifying the publication of multi- and inter-disciplinary studies, in journals and by publishing houses;
- creating an institutional framework for furthering at the international level AoS research.
The methods of AoS are those specific to any of the disciplines or sciences involved in reaching the third and fourth objectives. As progress ensues in this sense, it becomes possible to define a unitary methodology specific to the Anthropology of Salt. In any case, a key parameter within the methodology of AoS is the valorisation of any relevant aspect, irrespective of its historical importance, and even at the local level.
The Anthropology of Salt has a twofold status: it is obviously a subfield of general anthropology, but due to the large number of sciences and disciplines considered it is, just as obviously, a metadiscipline.

Table of Contents

Foreword.......................................................................................................................................vii
Welcoming Speech ......................................................................................................................... 1
Nicolae Ursulescu

Part I. Ethnographic Approaches of Salt

Salt Springs in Today’s Rural World. An Etnoarchaeological Approach in Moldavia (Romania) ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Marius Alexianu, Olivier Weller, Robin Brigand, Roxana-Gabriela Curcă, Vasile Cotiugă, Iulian Moga

New Ethnoarchaeological Investigations upon the Salt Springs in Valea Muntelui,
Romania........................................................................................................................................ 25
Dan Monah, Gheorghe Dumitroaia, Dorin Nicola

Traditional Methods of Salt Mining in Buzău County, Romania in the 21st Century .......... 35
Doina Ciobanu

El Salado-Ixtahuehue and Benito Juárez-Soconusco: an Ethno-Archaeological Study
of Salt Pre-Industries of Southeast Veracruz, Mexico.............................................................. 37
Jorge A. Ceja Acosta

The Saltmakers of Soconusco and Benito Juárez: An Interpretation of
Ethnoarchaelogical Data from the Perspective of Gender and Identity................................. 49
María Luisa Martell Contreras

Part II. Archaeological Salt Exploitation Provadia-Solnitsata (NE Bulgaria): A Salt-Producing Center of the 6th and 5th
Millennia BC................................................................................................................................. 59
Vassil Nikolov

Tell Provadia-Solnitsata (Bulgaria): Data on Chalcolithic Salt Extraction ........................... 65
Viktoria Petrova

Spatial Analysis of Prehistoric Salt Exploitation in Eastern Carpathians (Romania).......... 69
Olivier Weller, Robin Brigand, Laure Nuninger, Gheorghe Dumitroaia

The Cucuteni C Pottery near the Moldavian Salt Springs....................................................... 81
Roxana Munteanu, Daniel Garvăn

Some Salt Sources in Transylvania and their Connections with the Archaeological Sites in the Area............................................................................................................................ 89
Gheorghe Lazarovici, Cornelia-Magda Lazarovici

New Archaeological Researches concerning Saltworking in Transylvania. Preliminary Report.......................................................................................................................................... 111
Valeriu Cavruc, Anthony F. Harding

The Beginning of the Salt Exploitation in Spain: Thinking about the Salt Exploitation in the Iberian Peninsula during Prehistoric Times................................................................. 123
Jesús Jiménez Guijarro


Part III. Ancient Texts and Salt Salt in the Antiquity: a Quantification Essay.......................................................................... 137
Bernard Moinier

Hypotheses, Considerations – and unknown Factors – regarding the Demand for Salt in Ancient Greece....................................................................................................................... 149
Cristina Carusi

Historical Development of the ‘salinae’ in Ancient Rome: from Technical Aspects to
Political and Socio-Economic Interpretations......................................................................... 155
Nuria Morère Molinero

Salt in Tanning, Dyeing and Cleaning in Ancient Egypt ....................................................... 163
Virginie Delrue

Part IV. Historical Approaches Salt Production in Mediterranean Andalusia in the Transition from Late Antiquity to
the Early Middle Ages ............................................................................................................... 171
Antonio Malpica Cuello

Land Organisation and Salt Production in Region of the Salado River (Sigüenza, Province of Guadalajara, Spain): Ancient and Medieval Times. Results of the First Campaign 2008........................................................................................................................... 179
Antonio Malpica Cuello, Nuria Morère Molinero, Adela Fábregas García, Jesús Jiménez Guijarro

Sea Salt and Land Salt. The Language of Salt and Technology Transfer (Portugal since the Second Half of the 18th Century) .............................................................................. 187
Inês Amorim

A short Overview on the Main Salt Production in Italy from the End of the Middle Ages up to the Modern Period .................................................................................................. 197
Valdo D’Arienzo

Part V. Linguistic and Philological Approaches ‘Salty’ Geographical Names: A Fresh Look............................................................................ 209
Alexander Falileyev

Etymological and Historical Implications of Romanian Place-Names Referring to Salt.... 215
Adrian Poruciuc

Salt in the Greek and Latin Aphoristic Phrase ....................................................................... 219
Mihaela Paraschiv

Index of Authors......................................................................................................................... 225

Salt production by lixiviation. Nexquipayaq, Mexico

Ethnographical Investigation in Nexquipayac (México) at the LAST salt producer by lixiviation of salty soil. The production of salt through this process is an ancient but dying tradition.

Lixiviation is a physical-chemical process by which a soluble substance (in this case salt) contained by an insoluble medium (in our case, soil with a very high concentration of sodium chloride) is extracted through dissolution (''solvation'') in water or other solvent (steam, alcohol, etc. The process in commonly called ''leaching''; in chemistry of industry, the technique is also know as ''extraction'' or ''percolation''). The soluble substance is subsequently recovered from the solution through evaporation or precipitation.

This clip is the result of a serie of ethnographical inquiries concerning traditional salt production techniques in use across the world, undertaken by Romanian and French researchers (for more info, please see the project's webpage: http://ethnosalro.uaic.ro ).

Field team: Marius-Tiberiu Alexianu PhD (team manager), Roxana-Gabriela Curcă PhD, Vasile Cotiugă PhD (camera).

Special thanks to Blas Román Castellón Huerta PhD (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México).

https://vimeo.com/5540147