Three millennia of salt production: Briquetage and salt structures on the east coast of Lincolnshire, England

Abstract

While salt-making sites of Prehistoric, Roman and Medieval date have been known about for the best part of 200 years along the Lincolnshire Coast and Fenland, investigations have been patchy. The recognition that briquetage was connected to salt-making came early and a number of sites were revealed when sand was removed from beaches during storm events in the early 20th century. This led to spates of investigations culminating in the Fenland Project in the 1980s–90s. Since then, the deployment of LiDAR techniques to flood management by Government agencies has resulted in micro-topographical maps of the ancient wetland landscape adding to the general picture of the former wetland and enabling a fuller understanding of its extent and uses. Investigations in two landscape zones, each with seemingly different intensities of salt-making, has enabled comparisons to be made between the areas and an additional dimension of the industry to be investigated. However, there remains much to accomplish, including understanding the full extent of the industry now partially lost through post-saltern flood depositions and coastal erosion.