Brine-boiling not using briquetage? Technical, socio-economical and ritual aspects of salt production at the Villafáfila lagoons (central Iberia) in Late Chalcolithic/Bronze Age
Guerra-Doce, Elisa (Universidad de Valladolid. Departamento de Prehistoria, Arqueología, Antropología Social y Ciencias y Técnicas Historiográficas)
Abarquero Moras, F. Javier (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Espanya))
Romero-Brugués, Susagna (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Prehistòria)
Herrero-Otal, Maria (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Prehistòria)
Homs, Anna (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Prehistòria)
García Cuesta, José Luis (Universidad de Valladolid. Departamento de Geografía)
López-Sáez, José Antonio (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Espanya). Instituto de Historia)
Piqué Huerta, Raquel (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Prehistòria)
Delibes de Castro, Germán (Universidad de Valladolid. Departamento de Prehistoria, Arqueología, Antropología Social y Ciencias y Técnicas Historiográficas)

Data:	2024
Descripció:	17 pàg.
Resum:	By combining a multidisciplinary approach and an intensive program of scientific techniques, this paper provides a comprehensive overview of salt production at the Villafáfila lagoons (Zamora, Spain) in prehistoric times. During the Late Chalcolithic and the Early/Middle Bronze Age salt was obtained by boiling brine from salt lagoons. In many parts of western and central Europe at the time the standard procedure for forcing evaporation usually involved the use of crudely fired clay vessels (briquetage) to concentrate brine, and then to mould salt. We suggest that the methods during the final stages of the process differed at Villafáfila, having found evidence of basketry and textiles, which may have been used in the step of crystallization/transport of salt in cake, instead of the small ceramic salt moulds which would be expected in such sites. The role of salt within the socioeconomic setting of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE in Central Iberia is also assessed. It is argued that the production and distribution of salt contributed significantly to the political economy, as elites controlled this activity, supporting the idea that salt was a prestige good that contributed to the accumulation of wealth. There is also evidence of ritual practices in the salt-processing areas, as human burials and animal sacrifices have been documented in the excavated sites.
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Matèria:	Basketry ; Brine boiling ; Bronze age ; Chalcolithic ; Experimental archaeology ; Geoarchaeology ; Holocene ; Iberia ; Palynology ; Salt
Publicat a:	Quaternary Science Reviews, Vol. 336 (2024) , art. 108758, ISSN 0277-3791

DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108758

17 p, 22.3 MB

El registre apareix a les col·leccions:
Articles > Articles de recerca
Articles > Articles publicats