Meridians of Salt
Description
This book explores the relationship between salt (sodium chloride) and the development of human societies from a cross-cultural and global perspective. Although it is not possible to discuss the importance of salt to all ancient and modern societies, the geographically and temporally diverse examples highlighted here are used to examine a series of related topics critical to understanding the economic, political, social, and religious impacts of salt through space and time. These topics include, among others, the techniques used to produce salt, the individuals responsible for its production, its cultural uses and applications, its role in cross-cultural exchange, and the impact of its circumscribed distribution on settlement patterns and developing complexity.
In exploring these topics, the chapter authors rely on archaeological data to craft their interpretations, however, as salt itself is largely invisible in the archaeological record, other avenues of investigation such as ethnoarchaeology, ethnohistory, and experimental archaeology are necessary to gain a more complete understanding of this mineral's influence on the development of human cultures. Each chapter includes a summary of seminal research within a particular geographic region along with a discussion of recent or on-going projects from that area. This volume is intended for a professional audience, but university students and graduates and readers with an interest in anthropology, archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, or history will find the chapters comprehensible and informative.
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Paul N. Eubanks is an Associate Professor of Anthropology specializing in the Indigenous history of the American Southeast. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in 2008, and in 2016, he finished his Ph.D. at the University of Alabama. His dissertation, funded in part by the National Science Foundation, examined the role of salt production and trade in pre-Colonial and early Colonial northwestern Louisiana. Upon receiving his Ph.D., he accepted a tenure-track position at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). Here, he continues his research on Indigenous salt production and trade while leading MTSU's annual summer archaeological field school. His work and the work of his students is routinely presented at local, regional, national, and international conferences, and in 2018 he served on the Scientific Committee for the 3rd International Congress on the Anthropology of Salt in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. In 2021, he published a co-edited volume entitled Salt in Eastern North American and the Caribbean: History and Archaeology with Ashley A. Dumas at the University of West Alabama. He has also authored or co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on the archaeology and anthropology of salt.
Ashley A. Dumas is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of West Alabama, where she specializes in the late precontact and colonial eras of Southeastern North America. She has published and presented numerous studies on the role of salt in Indigenous and settler society, including Salt in Eastern North American and the Caribbean: History and Archaeology, co-edited with Paul N. Eubanks.
Heather McKillop is the Thomas and Lillian Landrum Alumni Professor in the Department of Geography and Anthropology at Louisiana State University. She earned her honors B.Sc. and M.A. in Anthropology at Trent University, Canada, and her Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Recent academic awards include Trent University Distinguished Alumna (2024), LSU Research Master (2021), LSU Honors College Teaching Award (2019), and Alumni Professorship (2015). She teaches courses in archaeology and 3D digital imaging. She organized the 4th International Congress on the Anthropology of Salt at Louisiana State University in 2022, along with Ashley Dumas and Rachel Watson. Since the 2004 discovery of wooden buildings preserved below the sea floor in Belize, her research has focused on these wooden structures, which included salt kitchens and residences, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Her current research is with co-PI E. Cory Sills on surplus household production of salt. She has published over 100 articles in journals and edited volumes, as well as five books: Maya Salt Works (2019), In Search of Maya Sea Traders (2005), The Ancient Maya (2004), Salt: White Gold of the Ancient Maya (2002), Pre-Columbian Jade and Stone Carvings from Costa Rica (2002), and Coastal Maya Trade (1989, with co-editor Paul F. Healy).
Marius Alexianu is a senior researcher at "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Ia?i, Romania. He led three research projects (2007-2019) on the ethnoarchaeology of salt in Romania. He is the first editor of three volumes on the archaeology and anthropology of salt. He published the first study on the concept of the anthropology of salt and is the author of the chapter "Ethnoarchaeology of Salt in Romania," published in the Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, edited by Claire Smith (2nd ed., 2020). He co-edited, with Roxana-Gabriela Curca, Olivier Weller, and Ashley A. Dumas, the volume Mirrors of Salt: Proceedings of the First International Congress on the Anthropology of Salt (2023).
Content
Foreword (Ian W. Brown).- Chapter 1. Introduction (Paul Eubanks, Ashley Dumas, Heather McKillop, and Marius Alexianu).- Chapter 2. Desert Wealth: Ethnoarchaeology of the Afar Salt Trade, 450 BCE-1600 CE (Helina S. Woldekiros).- Chapter 3. Resources, Exploitation, and Consumption of Salt in Anatolia (Türkiye) (Gonca Dardeniz).- Chapter 4. Rock Salt Mining: Insights into Traditional and Ancient Exploitation Practices from Iran and Austria (Thomas Stöllner).- Chapter 5. Salt Production and the Urban Center of Provadia-Solnitsata, Northeastern Bulgaria (5600 - 4350 BC) (Vassil Nikolov).- Chapter 6. Salt Exploitation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Ivana Pandzic).- Chapter 7. Salt Exploitation from the Neolithic to the Roman Empire: Ocna Sibiului & Miercurea Sibiului (Romania). An Ethnoarchaeological Approach (Marius Alexianu, Andrei Asandulesei, Felix-Adrian Tencariu, Mihaela Asandulesei, Roxana-Gabriela Curca).- Chapter 8. Salt Exploitation in Ukraine (Svitlana Ivanova and Alexey G. Nikitin).- Chapter 9. Salt and Power in Copper Age Iberia (Elisa Guerra-Doce, F. Javier Abarquero-Moras, and Germán Delibes-de Castro).- Chapter 10. The Open-Pit Salt Mine in the Vall Salina of Cardona between 4200 and 3300 BC and the Socioeconomic Transformations in the Communities of the Catalan Middle Neolithic (Alfons Fíguls i Alonso).- Chapter 11. Production and Demand of Salt in Ancient Italy from the Bronze Age to the Roman Period (Peter A. J. Attema, Luca Alessandri, Francesca Bulian, Jan Sevink, and Agostino Sotgia).- Chapter 12. The Briquetage de la Seille (Lorraine, Eastern France) (Laurent Olivier).- Chapter 13. Salt in the Old Continent: A Journey into Spain's Ancient Saltworks and Their Origins (Alberto Plata Montero).- Chapter 14. Salt-making Traditions and Salt Trade in the Eastern Himalayas (Biswarup Ganguly and Bina Gandhi Deori).- Chapter 15. Exploration, Discovery, and Foresight: Salt Production Archaeology in China (Li Shuicheng).- Chapter 16. Archaeological Studies of Salt Production in Japan (Takamune Kawashima).- Chapter 17. Salt Making Pottery in Prehistoric Japan: A Case Study from the Matsushima Coastal Area, Miyagi Prefecture (Itsuki Okamoto).- Chapter 18. Unbroken Salt: Brine-boiling pottery and salt cakes in the Central Philippines (Andrea Yankowski).- Chapter 19. Ethnohistory of Salt in the Mississippian and Contact-Era American Southeast (Ashley Dumas and Paul Eubanks).- Chapter 20. The Precious Gift of Salt Woman: Ethnography and Archaeology of Salt in the American Southwest (Todd W. Bostwick).- Chapter 21. Salt Archipelago: History and Archaeology of Salt Cultivation and Harvesting in the Caribbean (Konrad Antczak).- Chapter 22. Salt Production Technology in Highland Central Mexico: Evolution and Adaptations Through Time (Blas Román Castellón Huerta).- Chapter 23. Modeling the Economics of Salt Production from Wooden Architecture at the Paynes Creek Salt Works, Belize (Heather McKillop and E. Cory Sills).- Chapter 24. One Step Closer to Knowing Ancient Salt Makers: New Insight into Pre-Hispanic Salt Workshops in Southeastern Mesoamerica (Akira Ichikawa).- Chapter 25. Salt Production Studies in Colombia (Saul Alberto Torres Orjuela, Sonia Archila, and Marianne Cardale).- Chapter 26. Conclusion: Salt in the Ancient World (Anthony Harding).- Index.