Archaeology of Salt

Archaeology of Salt PDF Author: Robin Brigand
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789088903038
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
Salt is an invisible object for research in archaeology. However, ancient writings, ethnographic studies and the evidence of archaeological exploitation highlight it as an essential reference for humanity. Both an edible product and a crucial element for food preservation, it has been used by the first human settlements as soon as food storage appeared (Neolithic).As far as the history of food habits (both nutrition and preservation) is concerned, the identification and the use of that resource certainly proves a revolution as meaningful as the domestication of plants and wild animals. On a global scale, the development of new economic forms based on the management of food surplus went along an increased use of saline resources through a specific technical knowledge, aimed at the extraction of salt from its natural supports.Considering the variety of former practices observed until now, a pluralist approach based on human as well as environmental sciences is required. It allows a better knowledge of the historical interactions between our societies and this "white gold", which are well-known from the Middle-Ages, but more hypothetical for earlier times.This publication intends to present the most recent progresses in the field of salt archaeology in Europe and beyond; it also exposes various approaches allowing a thorough understanding of this complex and many-faceted subject. The complementary themes dealt with in this book, the broad chronological and geographical focus, as well as the relevance of the results presented, make this contribution a key synthesis of the most recent research on this universal topic.

Archaeology of Salt

Archaeology of Salt PDF Author: Robin Brigand
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789088903038
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 227

Get Book Here

Book Description
Salt is an invisible object for research in archaeology. However, ancient writings, ethnographic studies and the evidence of archaeological exploitation highlight it as an essential reference for humanity. Both an edible product and a crucial element for food preservation, it has been used by the first human settlements as soon as food storage appeared (Neolithic).As far as the history of food habits (both nutrition and preservation) is concerned, the identification and the use of that resource certainly proves a revolution as meaningful as the domestication of plants and wild animals. On a global scale, the development of new economic forms based on the management of food surplus went along an increased use of saline resources through a specific technical knowledge, aimed at the extraction of salt from its natural supports.Considering the variety of former practices observed until now, a pluralist approach based on human as well as environmental sciences is required. It allows a better knowledge of the historical interactions between our societies and this "white gold", which are well-known from the Middle-Ages, but more hypothetical for earlier times.This publication intends to present the most recent progresses in the field of salt archaeology in Europe and beyond; it also exposes various approaches allowing a thorough understanding of this complex and many-faceted subject. The complementary themes dealt with in this book, the broad chronological and geographical focus, as well as the relevance of the results presented, make this contribution a key synthesis of the most recent research on this universal topic.

Salt in Prehistoric Europe

Salt in Prehistoric Europe PDF Author: Anthony Harding
Publisher: Sidestone Press
ISBN: 9088902011
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
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.

Islands of Salt

Islands of Salt PDF Author: Konrad A. Antczak
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789088908163
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The early-modern Venezuelan Caribbean did not lure seafarers with the saccharine delights of cane sugar but with the preserving qualities of solar sea salt. In this book, the historical archaeological study of this salty commodity offers a unique entryway into the hitherto unknown maritime mobilities and daily lives of the seafarers who camped at the saltpans of Venezuelan islands from the seventeenth to the late nineteenth centuries, cultivating and harvesting the white crystal of the sea.For the first time, this study offers a comprehensive documentary history of the saltpans of La Tortuga Island and Cayo Sal in the Los Roques Archipelago, uncovering the surprising importance of their salt. Long-term archaeological excavations at the campsites by these saltpans have brought to light the plethora of material remains left behind by seafarers during their seasonal and temporary salt forays. The exhaustive analysis of the thousands of recovered things - pipes, punch bowls, plates, teapots, buttons, bones - contrasted with documentary evidence, not only enables us to understand where these things came from but also by whom they were used. By engaging the evidence through my theoretical framework of assemblages of practice, I demonstrate how seafarers and things were vibrantly entangled in the everyday assemblages of practice of salt cultivation, dining and drinking.This multisited approach spanning 256 years, reveals that seafarers were fervent buyers of fashionable products, drinking hot tea from porcelain tea bowls, using colorful ceramic chamber pots for their hygienic needs and imbibing exotic rum punch by the scorching saltpans of the uninhabited Venezuelan islands. Intended for scholars, students and the interested public alike, this historical archaeological study positions humble seafarers in the limelight, not as the anonymous movers of international trade and facilitators of imperial interests, but as avid trans-imperial and extra-imperial consumers of the fruits of those very empires.

Salt Production and Social Hierarchy in Ancient China

Salt Production and Social Hierarchy in Ancient China PDF Author: Rowan K. Flad
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781107629936
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book examines the organization of specialized salt production at Zhongba, one of the most important prehistoric sites in the Three Gorges of China's Yangzi River valley. Rowan K. Flad demonstrates that salt production emerged in the second millennium BCE and developed into a large-scale, intense activity. As the intensity of this activity increased during the early Bronze Age, production became more coordinated, perhaps by an emergent elite who appear to have supported their position of authority by means of divination and the control of ritual knowledge. This study explores evidence of these changes in ceramics, the layout of space at the site, and animal remains. It synthesizes the data retrieved from years of excavation, showing not only the evolution of production methods, but also the emergence of social hierarchy in the Three Gorges region over two millennia.

Salt

Salt PDF Author: Heather Irene McKillop
Publisher: Gainesville : University Press of Florida
ISBN: 9780813025117
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
"In Salt: White Gold of the Ancient Maya, Heather McKillop reports the discovery, excavation, and interpretation of Late Classic Maya salt works on the coast of Belize, transforming our knowledge of the Maya salt trade and craft specialization while providing new insights on sea-level rise in the Late Holocene as well."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

A Study of Southwestern Archaeology

A Study of Southwestern Archaeology PDF Author: Stephen H. Lekson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781607816416
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
"In this volume Steve Lekson argues that, for over a century, southwestern archaeology got the history of the ancient Southwest wrong. Instead, he advocates an entirely new approach, one that separates archaeological thought in the Southwest from its anthropological home and moves to more historical ways of thinking. Focusing on the enigmatic monumental center at Chaco Canyon, the book provides a historical analysis of how Southwest archaeology confined itself, how it can break out of those confines, and how it can proceed into the future. Lekson suggests that much of what we believe about the ancient Southwest should be radically revised. Looking past old preconceptions brings a different Chaco Canyon into view. More than an eleventh-century Pueblo ritual center, Chaco was a political capital with nobles and commoners, a regional economy, and deep connections to Mesoamerica. By getting the history right, a very different science of the ancient Southwest becomes possible and archaeology can be reinvented as a very different discipline."--Provided by publisher.

Salt Effect

Salt Effect PDF Author: Marius Alexianu
Publisher: BAR International Series
ISBN: 9781407314228
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Salt is a biological and social necessity to human life. Salt has played a significant role in many ancient and modern processes, such as trade, preservation, health and cooking, which in turn makes the production, trade, transport and use of salt visible both in archaeological and historical evidence. This volume presents the papers of the Second Archeoinvest Symposium, From the ethnoarchaeology to the anthropology of salt (2012), held at the University of Iași, Romania. Many of the papers focus on theanthropology of salt in Romania, home of some of the oldest salt mines in the world and to an ancient and ongoing tradition of salt extraction and use. Also included are papers on evidence for salt use in other geographical regions including Mesopotamia, the Classical World and South America. Further, a selection of papers discuss the use of salt topically, such as the role of salt in magic and medicine, for example. The papers encompass a large chronological span from the Neolithic to the twentieth century. Papers draw on a range of disciplines including archaeology, ethnography, anthropology, medicine, geography, geology. This volume presents a fascinating and unique range of approaches for studying a ubiquitous and vitally important resource in past and present societies.

Archaeology of the Rock Springs Site

Archaeology of the Rock Springs Site PDF Author: Brooke S. Arkush
Publisher: Department of Anthropology Boise State University
ISBN: 9780963974976
Category : Animal remains (Archaeology)
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description


Archaeology and Anthropology of Salt

Archaeology and Anthropology of Salt PDF Author: Marius Alexianu
Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited
ISBN: 9781407307541
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Proceedings of the International Colloquium, 1-5 October 2008 Al. I. Cuza University (Iaşi, Romania) This book presents the proceedings of the International Colloquium (1-5 October 2008) held at Al. I. Cuza University (Iaşi, Romania) on the Archaeology and Anthropology of Salt. This title was awarded the Grand Prize at the National Salon of Technical and Scientifical Books at the European Exhibition of Creativity and Innovation, May 10-13, 2012, Iasi, Romania.

The Creation of Inequality

The Creation of Inequality PDF Author: Kent Flannery
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674064976
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 646

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Book Description
Flannery and Marcus demonstrate that the rise of inequality was not simply the result of population increase, food surplus, or the accumulation of valuables but resulted from conscious manipulation of the unique social logic that lies at the core of every human group. Reversing the social logic can reverse inequality, they argue, without violence.