Peter Attema, Jan Sevink, Luca Alessandri, Wieke de Neef, Rutger L. van Hall, Burkart Ullrich, Groningen Institute of Archaeology, Classical and Mediterranean Archaeology, Ecosystem and Landscape Dynamics (IBED, FNWI), and IBED (FNWI)
Gent, Gent, Belgium3Groningen Institute of Archaeology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands4Eastern Atlas GmbH & CO. KG, Berlin, GermanyCorrespondenceJan Sevink, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94240, 1090 GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands.Email: j.sevink@uva.nlScientific editing by Kevin Walsh1 | INTRODUCTIONSalt has long been an important commodity and it is therefore notsurprising that numerous archaeological studies have been devotedto its production (see e.g., Harding, 2013; Hocquet & Sarrazin, 2006;Nikolov & Bacvarov, 2012; Weller, 2002). Production techniqueshave ranged from mining (rock salt) and burning material containingsalts (plants and peat), to evaporation of saline waters to produce abrine from which salt is precipitated. Brines can be obtained in manyways, from collecting saline spring and seepage waters, or salt lakewater (e.g., sebkhas), to evaporation of seawater and leaching salineevaporation of sea water is by far the dominant raw material for salt production in the drier and warmer coastal areas of the world.Early salt production techniques based on evaporation of brines have been extensively studied, in many cases supported by ethno- graphic studies of such salt production in nonindustrial societies (see e.g., Cassen & Weller, 2013; Flad et al., 2005; Graham et al., 2015; Parsons, 2001; Weller, 2015; Williams, 2002). Two broad categories are distinguished: salt production using solar energy to evaporate a brine, and production based on boiling brine held in some sort of container (Weller, 2015). The first technique prevailed in Medi- terranean and warmer (semi‐)tropical climates favouring rapid eva- poration and was often based on evaporation from brines in salt pansAbstractA 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 la- goonal 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.