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Book Cover
E-book
Author Harding, Anthony

Title Salt in prehistoric Europe / Anthony Harding
Published Leiden : Sidestone Press, ©2013

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Description 1 online resource (162 pages) : illustrations
Contents Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction -- uses of salt -- action of salt in the body -- History of research -- Conclusion -- 2. Salt: what it is, where and why it appears -- What is salt? -- Origin and occurrence of salt deposits -- Conclusion -- 3. Production techniques through the ages -- techniques -- Ethnography -- Written sources: classical antiquity, medieval and early modern -- Conclusion -- 4. From earliest times to the Chalcolithic -- Introduction -- Salt up to the end of the Chalcolithic: conclusions -- 5. Bronze Age -- Briquetage -- Mines and quarries -- trough technique -- Bronze Age -- summary -- 6. Iron Age: Austrian mines, French briquetage, English Red Hills and other sites -- Lagoons and salt-pans: Greece and Rome -- Mining and quarrying -- Salt-boiling using briquetage -- Iron Age: summary -- 7. development of salt working through European prehistory -- salt zones of Europe -- 8. Salt as an economic resource -- scale of production -- movement of salt -- Salt and metal -- Salt as an economic resource: conclusion -- 9. Salt and society -- Chaines operatoires -- Cross-craft interaction -- Commoditization/Commodification -- Technological innovation -- Salt and society -- Gender aspects -- Provisioning production sites -- Towards a new narrative of salt production -- 10. Conclusions and prospects -- Salt today -- future of salt from the past
Summary "Salt was a commodity of great importance in the ancient past, just as it is today. Its roles in promoting human health and in making food more palatable are well-known; in peasant societies it also plays a very important role in the preservation of foodstuffs and in a range of industries. Uncovering the evidence for the ancient production and use of salt has been a concern for historians over many years, but interest in the archaeology of salt has been a particular focus of research in recent times. This book charts the history of research on archaeological salt and traces the story of its production in Europe from earliest times down to the Iron Age. It presents the results of recent research, which has shown how much new evidence is now available from the different countries of Europe. The book considers new approaches to the archaeology of salt, including a GIS analysis of the oft-cited association between Bronze Age hoards and salt sources, and investigates the possibility of a new narrative of salt production in prehistoric Europe based on the role of salt in society, including issues of gender and the control of sources. The book is intended for both academics and the general reader interested in the prehistory of a fundamental but often under-appreciated commodity in the ancient past. It includes the results of the author's own research as well as an up-to-date survey of current work."--Page 4 of cover
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references
Notes Print version record
Subject Salt mines and mining, Prehistoric -- Europe
Salt -- Europe -- History -- To 1500
Salt industry and trade -- Europe -- History -- To 1500
NATURE -- Natural Resources.
NATURE -- Rocks & Minerals.
Salt
Salt industry and trade
Salt mines and mining, Prehistoric
Europe
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 908890202X
9789088902024
1306395844
9781306395847