Abstract
AbstractA 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.
Highlights
Evaporation of sea water is by far the dominant raw material for salt production in the drier and warmer coastal areas of the world
Salt production techniques based on evaporation of brines surprising that numerous archaeological studies have been devoted have been extensively studied, in many cases supported by ethnoto its production
At a more detailed level, a range of key techniques have been distinguished for obtaining a brine and for evaporating a brine to obtain solid salt, as described in the many reviews and handbooks dealing with early salt production
Summary
Evaporation of sea water is by far the dominant raw material for salt production in the drier and warmer coastal areas of the world. Three types of magnetic anomalies were observed, representing the main archaeological features described above: (a) pyrotechnological features (kilns or fire pits), identified by their very high amplitudes and dipole characteristics, (b) pits or deposits with positive magnetic amplitudes, and (c) crescent‐shaped features with negative magnetic amplitudes, which were identified as dumps of lagoonal sediment (Figure 2) Using results from this survey, several areas were excavated in the subsequent campaigns (see Figure 3). This aims at a more detailed description of the briquetage process, based on the geochemical principles behind this process and dedicated chemical analyses
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