A Filtered Past: Interpreting Salt Production and Trade Models from Two Remnant Brine-Enrichment Mounds at the Ancient Maya Paynes Creek Salt Works,Belize

The mounds at Witz Naab and Killer Bee are the only known remaining aboveground evidence of a once-thriving salt industry in Punta Ycacos Lagoon, a large saltwater system in Paynes Creek National Park, Belize. Over one hundred ancient Maya salt works dated to the Classic period (a.d. 300–900) have been submerged by sea-level rise in the lagoon. We have hypothesized that mounds were once numerous features on the landscape prior to a sea-level rise that occurred in the area during the Terminal Classic period. Lacking at these underwater sites are earthen mounds formed by discarded soil from the leaching process in which the salinity of seawater was enriched by leaching brine through salty soil. Enriching the salinity of seawater by leaching or by solar evaporation is virtually universal in ethnographic case studies. Data from the excavations are evaluated to interpret the ancient activities that produced the earthen mounds, scales of production, and how the coastal Maya of southern Belize participated in the larger Classic Maya economy.     

Catalytic Environments

ABSTRACT

The metaphor of catalytic environments adequately accentuates the key role of natural factors in social change without superseding the significance of human agency. In this approach, natural resources are integrated into social practices and strategies while avoiding an environmentally deterministic perspective. The case study of MC-6, Middle Caicos, Turks & Caicos Islands, demonstrates how the natural availability of salt, fish, and cotton affected processes of social change, including settlement practices, food procurement strategies, and long-distance exchange. The inhabitants of MC-6 chose these resources within a social framework of historic practices and regional interaction, while simultaneously depending on local natural conditions and environmental factors. Although environmental diversity in the Caribbean highlights the relevance of catalytic environments, this approach is a tool to examine the dialectic interaction between humans and environments at a global scale.     

The Lion Salt Works,Northwich: A Legacy of the Cheshire Salt Industry

The Lion Salt Works are the last standing buildings of the open-pan salt industry that dominated the mid-Cheshire valleys of the rivers Weaver and Wheelock in North-West England. The site had been in the hands of the Thompson family from 1856, when the first works the Alliance Salt Works began. The Lion Salt Works occupied an adjacent land plot and ran from 1894 until their closure in 1986. The site opened with a small museum, but despite the continued campaigning of the Lion Salt Works Trust over the next 25 years the majority of the buildings remained in a dilapidated state. The site was closed between 2009 and 2015 as the buildings were restored and reopened as a museum, conference facilities and café as part of a project funded by a combination of the Heritage Lottery Fund, Cheshire West and Chester Council, Manage+, WREN and Historic England. Archaeological and historical research was conducted as part of the project. This paper describes the results of this research, detailing how salt was made at the site, the development of salt-making in Cheshire, the archaeology uncovered on site and the Thompson family business. It finally concludes by examining the Lion Salt Works place in a wider landscape of the Cheshire salt industry and the chemical industry in North-West England.     

Legal uncertainty,resistance to royal taxation and rural revolts in late medieval France: the case of Beauvoir-sur-Mer and Bois-de-Céné (1480)

In 1480, the inhabitants of Beauvoir-sur-Mer and Bois-de Céné, two small towns on the Atlantic coast of Poitou, in France, rebelled against the officials in charge of collecting the salt tax and arrested some of them. Despite the fact that the resulting civil disturbance had few long-lasting consequences, the case is an effective illustration of the dynamics of rural revolts at the end of the fifteenth century. This article demonstrates how violence was only the last stage of protest against royal taxation; the riots had been preceded by legal resistance and negotiations. The article also shows how the events were permeated and fuelled by judicial complexity and a climate of legal uncertainty surrounding the rights of French officials to collect the tax. These revolts must then be understood not simply as a reaction to excessive taxation, but more as self-defence against royal officials who refused to acknowledge the rights of the inhabitants of these towns.     

Salt Production of Late Imperial China in the Upper Three Gorges Region: A Case Study of the Zhongjingba Site in Chongqing

This article aims to improve the understanding of salt production in the upper Three Gorges region, based on archaeological investigation and excavation of salt-production sites in Yushan, Pengshui County, Chongqing. This article introduces the features of salt sources and the types and dates of the salt wells in Yushan, and investigates the local brine transportation and salt-making techniques. The Zhongjingba site is a large salt-making site with well-preserved remains of production and support facilities dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Large numbers of evaporation furnaces, brine tanks, and working pits have been excavated and revealed a complete process of producing salt. Analysis of historical documents and the excavated remnants has allowed the reconstruction of the po lu yin zao salt-making process (which, in Chinese, means to splash brine onto the evaporation furnace), the first archaeological evidence of this technique; the management, output capacity, and sales area of the ancient salt production in Yushan are also discussed.     

实验室模拟硅酸盐质文物除盐控盐的可视化研究

针对目前广泛使用的材料吸附除盐和加湿喷雾控盐等方法对含盐硅酸盐质文物可能造成的损伤,采用扫描电子显微镜、电阻仪和高分辨摄影仪等实时在线记录具有显色性质硫酸铜溶液在吸附除盐和水雾控盐加湿干燥过程中文物内部盐带分布的变化。研究结果表明：吸附材料除盐法和表面喷雾控盐法均会加速样品内部盐离子的扩散迁移,在样品中形成双层或多层盐结晶带;所形成的盐结晶带与样品结构特性、盐溶液在样品中的运移和蒸发速率、加湿-干燥频率等因素有关,其中溶液毛细上升高度和样品透气性越好,以及环境温度和盐溶液浓度越高,加湿-干燥频率越快,样品内部的盐带分布变化越明显。材料吸附除盐和水雾控盐等方法加速了盐溶液在样品内部的扩散,促进多层盐带的形成。这些结果对于目前文物保护所采取的除盐控盐技术手段提出了新的挑战。