Prehistoric salt spring from Hălăbutoaia - Ţolici (Romania): contribution of phytolith analysis to palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and human activities - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2019

Prehistoric salt spring from Hălăbutoaia - Ţolici (Romania): contribution of phytolith analysis to palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and human activities

Résumé

The sub-Carpathian area from Eastern Romania is characterized by a high density of salt water springs. The exploitation of some of these dates back from the Early Neolithic and represents one of the earliest evidence of salt production in Europe. Moreover, contrarily to other prehistoric salt springs in Europe those from Eastern Romania have been constantly exploited through time, and the natural brine is still used by locals nowadays (Alexianu et al., 1992). The Hălăbutoaia - Ţolici (Neamţ County) salt water spring is one of the sites from this area which present direct and very accurate evidence of salt exploitation during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods (Dumitroaia, 1994). Two techniques seems to have been practiced: pouring natural brine onto combustion structures during the Early Neolithic and evaporation in specific ceramic containers from the Chalcolithic onwards (Sordoillet et al., 2018). The whole salt extraction process involves not only the exploitation of the brine itself, but also of several other natural resources, of which a major one is fuel. In order to better understand the use of plants in the salt production process, especially for the heating of saltwater, and to document the palaeoenvironment and the impact of human activities on this territory, we carried out a detailed study of phytoliths in several archaeological levels. The underlying issues concerned the influence of the environment on the salt extraction process, and more specifically the impact of the local vegetation on the salt extraction techniques. As they are a link of the operational chain, the availability of the plants used as fuel may have influenced the whole process and it may be one of the reasons why this activity could have been seasonal. Moreover, the recourse to phytolith analysis allows tracing non-wood plants, which are often underestimated when the question of fuel is considered.
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Dates et versions

hal-03883994 , version 1 (04-12-2022)

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  • HAL Id : hal-03883994 , version 1

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Mihaela Danu, Claire Delhon, Olivier Weller. Prehistoric salt spring from Hălăbutoaia - Ţolici (Romania): contribution of phytolith analysis to palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and human activities. L’archéométrie dans tous ses états : Perspectives interdisciplinaires sur une discipline en constante évolution. XXIIe colloque du GMPCA, GMPCA, May 2019, Montréal (Quebec), Canada. ⟨hal-03883994⟩
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