Salt in prehistoric Europe / / Anthony Harding

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910453617303321
• Autore: Harding Anthony
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Leiden : , : Sidestone Press, , [2013]; ©2013
• ISBN: 90-8890-238-0; 90-8890-201-1; 90-8890-202-X
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (276 p.)
• Disciplina: 553.632
• Soggetti: Salt - Europe - History; Mines and mineral resources, Prehistoric; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references.
• Nota di contenuto: Cover Page; Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; Preface; 1 Introduction; The uses of salt; The 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; The 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 The Bronze Age; Briquetage; Mines and quarries; The trough technique; The Bronze Age - summary6 The 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; The Iron Age: summary; 7 The development of salt working through European prehistory; The salt zones of Europe; 8 Salt as an economic resource; The scale of production; The movement of salt; Salt and metal; Salt as an economic resource: conclusion; 9 Salt and society; Chaînes opératoires; Cross-craft interaction; Commoditization/Commodification; Technological innovation; Salt and society; Gender aspectsProvisioning production sites; Towards a new narrative of salt production; 10 Conclusions and prospects; Salt today; The future of salt from the past; Appendix; References
• Sommario/riassunto: 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 prod