9. Washing and heating on the Neolithic shores of Western Europe. An archaeological hypothesis on the production of sea salt
p. 175-204
Résumés
On the basis of confirmed historic contexts for salt-production as distant as possible from each other, in both time and space, we try to extract and stress the singular aspects which seem appropriate and pertinent, to bring together the ceramic and architectural vestiges of the fifth, fourth and third millennia, hitherto circumscribed to a domestic function at the heart of some kind of « habitat ». The following are especially significant:
- the deliberate choice of production sites which can be several kilometres away from the coast or the inland source and the fairly generalised use of a natural slope for water drainage;
- large, open-air complexes in which the base of the mounds of the salt-rich soils is set in clay-sealed, watertight ditches with straight-sided walls;
- smaller leaching, decanting and filtering pits, also made watertight with clay and linked by channels to drain off and store the concentrated solutions;
- vessels whose shape is determined by the heating method and exposing the maximum surface area to the heat source: either large, shallow dishes or truncated pots resting on, or suspended above the furnaces;
- furnaces needing constant rebuilding as they are destroyed and recycled in the course of the salt-making process.
After looking carefully at the sites in the Guadalquivir estuary in Spain (Nantes symposium, 2004) and the ditch complexes of Sandun (Pays de la Loire) and Salaisons (Languedoc) in France, in order to develop our European argumentation we turn our attention to a British (Cornwall) and an Italian (Tavoliere) context.
À partir de quelques contextes historiques vérifiés de production du sel, aussi éloignés que possible les uns des autres, dans le temps et dans l’espace, on tente d’extraire et de poser en exergue autant de caractères singuliers qu’il nous paraît opportun et pertinent, de rapprocher des vestiges céramiques et architecturaux des Ve, IVe et IIIe millénaires jusqu’ici limités dans leur interprétation à une fonction domestique, au sein d’un quelconque « habitat ». On notera en particulier :
- un choix délibéré de sites de production pouvant être éloignés de plusieurs kilomètres du rivage ou de la source terrestre, avec l’utilisation quasi-générale d’une pente naturelle pour l’écoulement des eaux ;
- de larges excavations assurant la base enterrée des structures de stockage des terres salées, à l’air libre, aux parois droites rendues étanches par lutage à l’argile ;
- des fosses de lavage, décantation et filtrage de tailles plus réduites, également rendues imperméables, et associées entre elles par conduits pour établir l’écoulement des solutions concentrées, puis leur stockage ;
- des récipients aux formes déterminées par le processus de chauffage, tous opérant par le biais de larges surfaces planes associées à une très faible hauteur de contenant, ou bien encore, autre terme de l’alternative, de contenants tronconiques appuyés ou suspendus au-dessus du foyer ;
- des fourneaux qu’il faut sans cesse rénover en raison des altérations subies aux cours des opérations, que l’on détruit en miettes et que l’on recycle ensuite dans la chaîne opératoire.
Ce sont les contextes de Cornouailles britannique et d’Italie (Tavoliere) que nous reprendrons afin de développer notre argumentaire européen, après avoir insisté sur le delta du Guadalquivir en Espagne (colloque de Nantes, 2004), et les complexes de fosses à Sandun (Pays de la Loire) et Salaisons (Languedoc) en France.
Entrées d’index
Mots-clés : tidal zone
Texte intégral
Figure 1: The Western-European geographical areas considered and the sites mentioned in the text, in relation to an attested exploitation of salt

Source: Cassen, Labriffe (de) et Ménanteau, 2004.
1The seas are the universal source of salt and this has led to numerous myths regarding the origin of this mineral « of passage », material Janus. The obviousness of the source, however, does not make it any easier to dig out, from the annals of time, coherent evidence for its use by men and women who left us no written records. In this paper, we go over some of our initial hypothesis and remind the reader of our expectations while trying to extend their heuristic efficiency by testing them in previously intuited as well as new archaeological contexts (fig. 1, p. 176).
2When dealing with such an evanescent domain, it is undoubtedly easier to pose the problems in circumscribed contexts which do not raise conceptual difficulties (salt water springs, salt-rich soils, geological deposits, etc.). Nevertheless, given the immensity of the maritime domain and the variety of material cultures dealt with, in the early stages we have allowed ourselves to be guided by intuition, and given preference to a methodology that opens the way for tests that will validate a hypothesis following a method suggested for the Marais Poitevin, on the Atlantic coast, more than twenty years ago.
I. Stages of research
3We first put forward the idea that in France, sea salt could have been exploited on a regular basis as early as the Neolithic in the 1980s (Cassen, 1987), after studying a fairly common type of receptacle found in the interrupted ditch enclosures of Poitou-Charentes, between the Loire and the Gironde (fig. 2, p. 178). Apart from our morphological, technical and environmental arguments (a truncated shape with sloping sides, rapidly made with a clay containing materials of marine origin, highly fragmented and found along the shores of the former Golfe des Pictons, and especially on the basis of data from the 1984 excavations of the La Mastine ditch enclosure (Boujot and Cassen, 1997); O.Weller analysed the sherds in question and found abnormally high levels of chlorine in the potsherds (Boujot and Cassen, 2000), thus validating a hypothesis hitherto contested in the region.
4We also presented salt as one of the possible sources of wealth accompanying the extraordinary development of monumental funerary architecture – some of the oldest being destined for only one person or lineage – as well as the accumulation of highly valued items such as polished stone axes made of alpine jadeite or iberian variscite, clear signs of the social inequalities which appear in the first half of the fifth millennium (Boujot and Cassen, 1992). In this case we lacked the material elements and only « theory » prevailed.
5A third phase in this process of recognition gradually built up after the discovery of a unique ceramic vessel (fig. 3, p. 179) – a shape hitherto unknown for Armorique – found in the course of excavations at Lannec er Gadouer (Boujot and Cassen, 1997b, 2000) in Erdeven (Morbihan). Such a specific morphology implied a degree of « specialisation » with regard to its use. If, moreover, the same trend, in terms of morphology and function, could be observed in geographically distant societies, thus proving the same practical use (Cassen, 2000), it was obviously salt for our mill!
Figure 2: Neolithic ditch enclosures around the Gulf of Pictons and truncated vases of the Champ-Durand type: marine mollusc inclusions and differential fragmentation

Source: From Cassen, 1987; Boujot and Cassen, 1997a – Bernard/Service archéologique départemental de Vendée.
Figure 3: Brine containers for furnaces in saliferous workshops: models attested (Lorraine/France, Mexico) and supposed (France, Spain, Portugal, England)

Source: The pot from the Murzeau passage grave is preserved at the Museum of Bougon (Photo S. Cassen) – Plate from Cassen, 2000.
6In fact two main types of vessels are used for heating the brine and both expose the largest possible surface area to the heat source. The outside walls have a rough finish and, in the case of earthenware, can be porous and the borders may be reinforced (festoons, folds, etc.) to resist the aggression of the liquid as it boils over. Thus, we find,
7- on the one hand, truncated cones with a reinforced base, whether flat or conical; jars of varying depth, opening out towards the top, rounded or square though we should also mention the rare inverted cones in which the base is wider than the opening, like those found at Farmanville in Normandy (Carpentier et al., 2006) and,
8- on the other, vessels with a flat bottom and low, almost vertical or sub-vertical sides with a round or square opening for ceramic examples, and always square if metal is used in their manufacture.
9There is a third, less common, category: perfectly cylindrical pots. Despite the obvious difference in shape, they have high technical efficiency in common with truncated vessels as both types expose a maximum lateral surface to the heat source when placed in a furnace.
10To sum up, the surface in contact with the heat source can be vertical or, on the contrary operate efficiently on a horizontal plane, an alternative that may sometimes be linked to the structure of the furnace above which the containers are suspended or placed (by the point or the base), with or without a supporting pillar above the furnace area.
11The attention given to this pottery form made it possible to rescue other elements, previously incorrectly classified or forgotten, from the registers of the French Neolithic in general and the Armorique in particular. At a regional level, the fact that the burials of major tumuli such as Saint-Michel at Carnac and Er Grah at Locmariaquer (Hamon, 2000, 2003) contained such an unusual type of vessel, to the exclusion of all other pottery types, together with the most exotic and rare burial goods, gave added weight to our hypothesis.
12What was the function of these containers which stood out from the body of archaeological ceramics, as much as they did in the lives of these remarkable men? Why were they not found among « domestic » remains while they were preserved at Er Lannic, which is a « cult » site par excellence (ibid., 2003, pl. 36)?
13Thus, salt, previously so patently absent from this science of objects and rejects, suddenly seemed to have slipped into the equation. Numerous convergent clues drew special attention not only to the process of making salt but also to the way in which it travelled well beyond the confines of the Morbihan. Below, we review some contrasted contexts selected for the analogy of the vessels found.
II. Models compared
14The constituent elements of our functional hypothesis for the Erdeven vessel, which we set out below, were all based on ethnographic contexts (contemporary Mexico), recent historic accounts in a comparable environment (18th century Normandy) and proven archaeological accounts for the production of salt by heating (French Iron Age).
1. Contemporary Mexican saltpans
15In present day Mexico, the containers, also designed to be used for making igneous salt (Liot, 1998), are very similar to those found at Lannec er Gadouer (fig. 3, p. 179). If we look at pre-hispanic salt manufacture in the Sayula basin, we also note:
the straight sided trenches used to filter/wash the salt-bearing soils are found in sets of two or three parallel rows, with a narrow (10 cm diameter) communication channel joining the lower, flattened part and thus allowing the brine to run off into the neighbouring storage ditch, due to the slight natural slope of the terrain;
the storage basins are also circular and made watertight by means of clay and stones set into the sides;
the combustion trenches are also often lined with clay, stones or potsherds mixed with clay; the fairly shallow, flat bottomed pottery vessels, were set in a mixture of dry clay, vegetation and potsherds above the heating chamber which was destroyed after use; the final product obtained was
a type of salt paste;waste material (leached soils) was deposited in small mounds nearby;
16In our opinion, the sum of all these elements creates a « visual » system which, in an archaeological site allows us, due to a number of convergent clues, to recognise similar technical processes, especially when dealing with an appropriate environment.
2. The sites of Lorraine and Nord-Pas-de-Calais in the course of the first millennium B.C.
17In the Valley of the Seille, in Lorraine, some of the Late Bronze Age vessels used for heating and concentrating brine, made from rock salt, are identical to the Lannec er Gadouer model (fig. 3, p. 179). Initially, this was our totally intuitive starting point (Cassen, 2000). Now let us add the technical and environmental features which characterise the product allowing us to build a bridge to earlier contexts.
18In Sorrus (Pas-de-Calais) the water filtering process can be deduced from a series of dug out, sometimes basin shaped, structures two of which are linked by a drainage ditch, which were probably water-tight and designed to collect brine and store fresh water (Prilaux, 2000, p. 70). In Vignacourt (Somme) two vats set in the side of a multi-lobed depression appear to testify to the presence of the washing process. The flat-bottomed cylindrical ditches are lined with sandstone held together by a mixture of clay and sand.
19The choice of tempering materials (sandy, vegetable or seashell grits) resulted in porous vessels making it possible to maximise the thermal exchange between their inner and outer surfaces during the evaporation process (Weller, Desfossés, 2002, p. 72).
20In these sites we note numerous structures designed to collect the run off on the surface sand layer, showing that a constant and plentiful water supply was required in order to dilute the mud or salty sands brought from the coast so as to produce the brine used in the salterns. During this period the shore was much closer than it is today (3.5 km as against the present 9 km).
21Broadly speaking, however, the salt works of Northern France date from the late La Tene period (2nd century-first half of the 1st century BC) and most of them coincide with deep estuaries, low lying wetlands or ponds or the limits of high tides.
22For the same period, the Seilles site at Les Crôlleurs, near Moyenvic (Moselle, France) provides us, yet again, with similar pottery types while the morphological and technical features of the production site are close to those of the older contexts.
23Here we find comparatively large flat vessels (up to 15 cm high) made from clays evenly tempered with minerals and vegetable matter (Olivier, 2000, p. 161), with reinforced scalloped borders. The furnaces are of the « horse-shoe » type.
3. Normandy in the 18th century
Figure 4: Normandy

Legend: This illustration shows the position of the mondrain in relation to the saltern proper (Groin du sud, Vains-Normandy) Tools for collecting and draining salt, and pans on a furnace (after L’Encyclopédie, Diderot, D’Alembert, 1778). Two photographs of the beach in Men Du (Carnac, Morbihan) in summer; on the left, surface salt deposits, on the right, the surface has been raked to expose the sablon or fine sand (photo S. Cassen). A 19th century photograph of saltworks in Normandy, the cart in the foreground was used for taking sand to the fields, and salt from the saltern to the left (from L’Homer, Piquois, 2002).
24The Diderot encyclopaedia (1751-1772) describes how, between May and September, the top layer of the beach is carefully collected and how the sand is taken to the nearby salt works or transported over a distance of several kilometres for later use. Since large amounts of fresh water are needed to wash the sand in order to obtain brine, a task carried out in autumn and winter, the sand was often stored near wetlands and small streams. And now let us see how we can integrate our earlier data (L’Homer, Piquois, 2002; Cassen et al., 2004).
25The piles of salt-rich sand had all the appearance of a circular tower. Sometimes they were placed in a circular ditch, its base lined with clay so as to make it water tight. If not placed in a ditch, a circular drainage channel was dug round the sand pile.
26In the salt-works proper, on slightly sloping ground, the circular ditches (80 cm diameter and 40 cm deep) dug to concentrate the brine were lined with clay and straw (fig. 4, p. 182). A narrow, open channel dug allowed water to flow into the reservoir. The sand collected on the strand was packed into the ditch and water was poured over it. This was either fresh or water recovered from the second leaching in a previous operation. This brine was collected and poured into shallow (no more than 7 cm) square lead vessels.
The containers were heated; water evaporated leaving a slushy salt paste which was drained in conical, pointed wickerwork « colanders ». After lengthy drainage, the white salt cones took on the shape of the drainage baskets.
As in Lorraine, the enormous demand for fuel imposed its own law.
The waste (sand, ashes) was sold to farmers who came from afar in search of the prized materials used to improve poor soils, especially for buckwheat cultivation (fig. 4, p. 182).
III. Archaeological tests in a Neolithic and Mediaeval context
27By taking a broad look at documented salt-production contexts, as distant as possible from each other in time and space, we wished to draw out and stress what, in each case, seemed worth comparing to our vestiges in order to interpret them:
a deliberate choice of production sites which could be several kilometres away from the shore or the source of salt-rich materials, in which a natural slope was almost always used to drain off water;
large excavations in which the base of the salt-rich sand was stored in the open; straight-sided ditches in which clay was used to make them water-tight, although we could have used other similar examples whether from the Armorique Iron Age, where the basins, whether rectangular as in the Île d’Arz (Ilur, Morbihan) or circular as in the île d’Yoc’h (Landunvez, Finistère) are lined with clay or stone thus making them impermeable (Daire, 1994);
smaller water-tight ditches, for washing and filtering, connected to each other by channels allowing brine drainage and storage;
receptacles whose shape is determined by the heating method, though all of them are shallow with a large flat surface;
furnaces needed constant renovation due to alterations suffered in the course of the heating stage, which are destroyed and recycled as part of the total process.
28But, let us return to our Neolithic witnesses.
1. The Sandun enclosures
29May we remind you that in the Sandun Neolithic site (Guérande, Loire-Atlantique, fig. 5, p. 184), the numerous circular double, straight-sided ditches, also lined with flat stones and clays – the probable aim of which, according to the authors, was to make them watertight (Letterlé et al., 1990b) – remain, in our opinion, suitable candidates for a radical reinterpretation of this ditch complex in favour of a salt production area.
Figure 5: Bathymetric cartography between Belle-Île-en-Mer (Morbihan) and the Île de Yeu (Vendée)

Note: Shom data 1/50000, Brest (7033-68, 7094-95). Situation of Sandun (Guérande, Loire-Atlantique).
Source: After Cassen et al., 2004, 2006.
Figure 6: Comparative analysis of the distribution of the pits with watertight facing, doubles or multiples, between the salt production centre of Molita on the edge of the Sayula basin (Mexico) and the Neolithic and late Tène site of Sandun, Brière basin (Loire-Atlantique)

Source: From Letterlé et al., 1990; Liot, 1998.
30Rather than seeing these as simple silo-pits, we are inclined to suggest a different function – i.e. filtering/leeching – in which the circular pits are aligned in such a way that this could well be a saltern. Today, the site (fig. 5, p. 184) is only 200 m from the vast wetlands of La Brière, a depression that was covered by the sea in the 5th millennium BC (Visset, 1979).
31Moreover, one of the Sandun pits (S131) contained a series of short pottery supports or piliers en trompette (fig. 6, p. 185); proof of salt production on this site in the Late Iron Age (Letterlé et al., 1990 a).
32Of course, one could retort that the Neolithic pottery in question is absent here. This in fact is the issue with regard to the future of these sherds, of the life span of these vessels which, whatever happened, were condemned to destruction or recycling. We could also envisage the possibility that there is another vessel, with a very different morphology, literally just sitting there and staring at us as happened with the sub-vertical dishes that were to be found in museum collections but were absent from the texts of archaeologists.
2. The Salaisons pit complex
33The vast site of Salaisons, near Béziers, is known in the literature by its decorated Chasséen dish (Mary, Louis, 1935, fig. 3). On the surface of the plateau, with its slight southward slope, more than 360 greyish « patches » (frequently with ashes and charcoal) are scattered over a surface area of 14 ha. Sometimes they are grouped together in sets of two to five pits.
34The fonds de cabanes (or hut-floors) excavated were often described as being « horse-shoe shaped » and filled with an ashy layer 30 cm deep. This brings to mind the very similar description of the Iron Age « briquetage » furnaces (Laffite, 2002) or the Roman sites in the Lincolnshire Fens (Lane, Morris, 2002). Moreover, several sites are described as having a central basin prolonged by a 20 cm wide channel, a structural detail described in other contexts we shall return to below (fig. 9, p. 192). Finally, the authors say the stone slabs could have served as paving or to line the walls.
35In Salaisons, pottery is abundant, whether on the surface or in the excavated pits, but being very brittle and fragmented it is not possible to reconstitute a profile. There is a remarkable set of nine large blades found on the surface and described as « luxury objects of foreign provenance » as well as a « perfectly polished » axe made of jadeite (a material we know to be of alpine provenance – Pétrequin et al., 2005). The axes in the Tautavel Museum come from outcrops in the Forcalquier basin in the Alps of Haute-Provence (Renault, 2003).
36The decorated Salaisons vase was found in one of those ashy pits in contact with human remains and was probably part of the grave goods, comparable to the Morbihan context. Not that the vase was unique; numerous fragments of the same type of pottery are described as coming from the same pit as the decorated piece, as well as at least four other fonds de cabanes.
37To sum up, in Salaisons we have (Cassen et al., 2004, 2006):
an explicit toponym;
a series of pits, apparently arranged in groups which the authors call « settlement areas » (ibid., p. 323) including several alignments of three to eight pits;
numerous pits containing ash and coal remains whose very density, as in Sandun, leaves little space for the inhabitants of a village, as the evidence is usually interpreted;
pits which could have been made watertight using small stone slabs, joined together with clay, as was done elsewhere;
pits which are remarkable due to the presence of channels which we know to be all-important for capturing brine or drainage;
pits, with ash deposits, some of which are horseshoe-shaped, and reminiscent of those described in Lorraine (Hallstatt period) or Roman Britain;
typical furnaces in which pottery vessels are used in evaporating brine;
pits containing rare pottery shapes that become explicit when compared with pots we know to have been made in order to evaporate brine and obtain salt;
highly fragmented pottery weakened by a manifest alteration that remains to be defined;
evidence of the circulation, over considerable distances, of socially prized goods (large blades of alpine flint or highly polished alpine jadeite) which not only do not refute, but tend to confirm, our general line of enquiry.
38The situation of Salaisons is perfectly comparable to that of Sandun:
the proximity of a marine environment which was doubtless even greater in the Neolithic as geologists believe a gulf cut into the present land mass (Ambert, 2001), even if we still lack data on the exact extent and the precise chronology of the phenomenon;
the case of the Sandun site, on a dominant hill and surrounded by ditches, could be transposed to Salaisons if field work could validate our hypothesis;
at first glance a paradoxical distancing from the shore which becomes relative if we remember the historical (18th century) context in Normandy, where the need for firewood and fresh water determined the position of the salt works, often several kilometres from the coast.
39That said, the presence of « geological » salt-rich soils in the regional environment is not an insignificant clue to add to our file. In winter and spring, large coastal sectors are flooded by rainfall as well as run off; sectors which are naturally dry in the warmer months and where, at least some of the surface sands and soils (cf. Portiragnes) can, according to the geological map, be classified as rich in salts.
40We should also mention the Miocene areas of Languedoc and, especially, those around Béziers, some of which still contain salts. Closed depressions of the Pleistocene could also have been a source for salt-rich soils as was the case in the now dry lake of Marseillette where the Abbey of Caunes-Minervois extracted the salt sent on to the south of the Massif Central through the Montagne Noire (Abbé, 2003).
41These characteristics of the sub-soil, which could have by-passed a strictly marine environment, are also found in Andalusia
3. The « silo culture » of Atlantic Andalusia
42In the Iberian Peninsula, there are many settlements dating from the 4th and 3rd millennia along the former shorelines, which border the present day wetlands of the Odiel, the Guadalquivir and the Guadiana. The presence of numerous « silos », sometimes covering vast areas pockmarked by roughly circular pits with straight or curved sides tapering towards the top has led our colleagues to devise the Silo Culture of Lower Andalusia (la cultura de los silos de la Baja Andalucía).
43On the basis of our research in central western France, however, some authors have put forward a hypothesis for salt making, based on the excavations carried out in 1985 at La Marismilla, on the former shoreline which today marks the northern limits of the Guadalquivir wetlands (fig. 7, p. 189), which is presented as « the oldest prehistoric salt-works in the world » (Escacena, 1993, p. 26).
44The argumentation is also based on the large quantities of potsherds found (Escacena, 1985), one of the factors that could, in historic accounts, point to salt production. No proof, however, is provided, not the slightest evidence is submitted for consideration and no ceramic vessel is put forward to back up the proposal (Escacena et al., 1996). Nevertheless, excavations have brought to light 17 pits of different shapes and sizes and diameters of 30 to 50 cm, some of which could be twin silos at their base.
45Despite our criticism, we have found some outstanding data (Cassen, 2000; Cassen et al., 2004):
first of all, we note the large quantities of pottery with very low carination, or with what was probably a flat base, and very short necks, either straight or tapering are comparable to the Lannec er Gadouer form;
we can add that the morillos de barro (earthenware cones) found among the pot sherds in question, described in detail, but without the least attempt at interpretation, could, in our opinion, very well have been used as supports for the vessels placed above the furnace as in the briquetage technique, well known for the Iron Age on the Atlantic coast of France (Gouletquer, 1970) and the Roman sites of the Lincolnshire Fens (Lane, Morris, 2002) which are identical to the Spanish models.
46These assumptions led us to look for, on the scale of Lower Andalusia, other arguments that would allow us to plead in favour of the hypothesis we defend. We paid particular attention to the cartographic distribution of the sites (Arteaga, Ménateau, 2004) and especially those offering the highest number of elements that coincide with our main line of enquiry (Cassen et al., 2004, 2006).
47Northeast of La Marismilla, the Estacada de Alfaro site was established on a hill with a gentle slope at the junction of the La Ribera and Guadalquivir wetlands. It comprised some 500 silos, 200 of them were identified and 131 surveyed. These silos are associated with circular « hut floors » and one of them (diameter: 3.64 m) was studied. The walls were covered with clay tiles and a beaten earth floor so as to make the base watertight.
48Between the mouths of the Guadalquivir and the Guadalete rivers, there is another concentration of Neolithic and Bronze Age sites with numerous silos (fig. 7, p. 189). These sites are found either along the banks of the mouth of the Arroyo Salado or close to intermittent streams and endoreic lagoons such as El Gallo, whose waters are brackish. At Pocito Chico, on a hillock sloping towards the south-eastern borders of the Lago del Gallo, archaeologists describe a « hut floor » and twin silos (Ruiz Gil, Lopez Amador, 2001).
49Some sites are not on the former shore-line (e.g. the La Dehesa site in the Guadalete wetlands in the 2nd and 3rd millennia), but linked to the geological nature of the terrain traversed by water from run-off and infiltration. We cannot but wonder whether the sites excavated at the mouth of the Arroyo Salado (salty stream) are closer to the shores of the Gulf of Cadiz (Ménanteau et al., 1989), or the salt-rich continental alluvial deposits.
Figure 7: Paleogeography of the Marismilla and Estacada del Alfaro (La Puebla del Río) settlements and distribution of Neolithic and Bronze Age sites with what are thought to be « grain silos »

Legend: The two sites are located in the north of the Guadalquivir wetlands, on the shore line of the maximum Flandrian Transgression.
50By looking at the geological data for the region, we can establish the provenance of the salty waters that run into the numerous streams and lagoons in the North of the Province of Cadiz and the Southern part of the Province of Seville (Gavala, 1913). Rock salt is found in the chalk and clay layers in the Keuper level of the Upper Triassic. Eighty-five inland saltworks are recorded for Andalusia (Fernández Palacios-Carmona, Delgado Marzo, 2004). There are also historic records for inland salt-making.
51Let us go over some archaeological parameters in relation to our hypothesis.
52At the mouth of the Arroyo Salado (Puerto de Santa María and Base Naval de Rota, province of Cadiz – Perdigones (Moreno et al., 1985):
some silos are of the twin, intercommunicating type (ibid., p. 76); at Cerro de la Viña they are found in groups of three to six with a distance of 20 to 30 m between clusters;
according to the authors the circular « wells » with straight walls could have been used to store water (depósitos de agua).
53In the sites excavated in and around the town of Carmona (Province of Seville), Campo Real, El Acebuchal and calle Dolores Quintanilla (in the town centre), the pits may communicate with each other and some contained human remains (Colin Hayes, 2003).
54At El Trobal (Jerez de la Frontera, Cádiz – González Rodríguez, 1986):
the floors of the twin pits, which are connected by a channel, are at different levels, which is significant in an area with no natural slope (ibid., p. 82);
moreover, two communicating pits (structure X-1) contained human remains;
as in the other sites, the silos are full of highly fragmented pot sherds (ibid., p. 84);
the pottery dishes with re-entering or sub-vertical sides show a very different treatment for the inner and outer surfaces.
55In Puebla del Rio (Seville province, Carriazo, 1980), the « silo fields » include « hut floors » (2 to 3 m in diameter) with rectilinear walls lined with clay and small slabs and were probably watertight storage structures.
56In brief, all the sites we have mentioned have been published with numerous uncertainties as to their agricultural function (Colin Hayes, 2003, p. 17). Nevertheless, they are generally interpreted as special sites on which structures for storing grain and forage were built.
57Although we do not wish to generalise our doubts to all the Neolithic silo sites in Andalusia, we do question their exclusive use as grain or forage stores. If all the features mentioned here are integrated, we could have a coherent interpretation system based on: the choice of sites, their distribution, a pit typology and the techniques used to the nature of the ceramic corpus, in terms of morphology as well as the final state of the sherds.
4. Tavoliere di Foggia
58In the Adriatic Sea, at the far end of the Gulf of Manfredonia, there is a high concentration of Neolithic sites from the Early and Middle periods (6th to 5th millennium B.C.). These sites are remarkable for ditch enclosures round dwellings which are also surrounded by « C » shaped enclosures (fig. 9, p. 192).
Figure 8: Morpho-littoral cartography of the Neolithic sites of Tavoliere, Italy

Source: From Tinè, 1983; Tunzi Sisto, 1991; Quaranta et al., 2003; Cassen et al., 2004.
59The sites are found at the periphery of recent alluvial deposits, on low hills along a water course or on the edge of salt lagoons (Skeates, 2002, p. 54- 55).
Figure 9: Passo di Corvo

Legend: Topography of the Passo di Corbo settlement (from Tinè, 1983); view of the Vasche Napoletane Neolithic and Bronze Age salt production site, with rectilinear and circular channels (from Tunzi Sisto, 1991); multi-ditched Neolithic settlement, depicted by a geophysical survey undertaken in 2005, with horseshoe-shaped ditches dug in the natural slope (from Volpe et al., 2006); recent plan of Mezzana Comunale Neolithic enclosure on the lagoon (from Quaranta et al., 2003); the photograph of Passo di Corvo and the two diagrams of the excavated structures and ceramic layers from Barycz in Poland (from Jodłowski, 1977) and Salaisons in France (from Mary, Louis, 1935) and the drawings of pottery from Passo di Corvo and Tuzla in Bosnia-Herzegovina (from Benac, 1978) allow us to compare the four sites; three photographs from Passo di Corvo: the original ditch above and the reconstitution carried out by the Direzione regionale per i beni culturali e paesaggistici della Puglia.
60In Passo di Corvo, the best known site thanks to the excavations carried out by S. Tinè (Tinè, 1983) most of the « dwellings » are to be found on the slope of the high ground overlooking the plain and grouped together behind a curved ditch, whereas the enclosure for the site as a whole covers a surface area twice the size and includes the whole promontory together with its topographic summit.
61Once again let us try to establish an ordered sequence of promising clues which are likely to favour our hypothesis on the basis of the excavations carried out in a sector of the site containing two « dwellings ».
62The ditch enclosures round these dwellings, γ et β 2 (phase IV to I, well dated c. 4500 B.C.) include a curious « containing » wall, with perfect clay pointing on the inner and outer side, and sometimes interrupted by a low wall. The author (ibid., 1983, p. 46) says that the function of these walls was to allow drainage of rain water and thus avoid in-filling of the ditches; ditches which could only be palisades and, since they were mostly open on one side could not, unlike the larger ditch on the periphery, have had a defensive function.
63The function of the canaletti superficiali (small superficial channels) described as being on the surface of this sector, is again said to be to drain rain water (ibid., p. 48). Identical archaeological situations are described for the Neolithic site on the shores of the lagoon at Vasche Napoletane (fig. 9, p. 192; Tunzi Sisto, 1991).
64One of these channels runs into a square pit (fig. 9, p. 192) said to have been used in decanting water while preserving clay (ibid., p. 49) but which, in our opinion, is very similar to that described by A. Jodlowski for the salt water springs of Barycz VII (Poland; ibid., 1977) dated to a middle phase of the Lengyel (4500-4300 B.C.). Here the fairly shallow drainage channels are also placed in a corner of the pit and in terms of morphology are very similar to square « historic » pits described in Normandy, in which the leached sablons were placed to drain off the brine (Buron, 1991, p. 13).
65- A well with a diameter of one to two meters and six meters deep going down to the water table.
66- The reinforced bases of the truncated pots attract our attention given the analogy with specimens used for heating brine in proven archaeological and ethnographic contexts (cf. the salt moulds from Vinča C from the region of Tuzla in Bosnia-Herzegovina which are contemporary with those from Passo di Corvo, described by A. Benac (1978) on the other side of the Adriatic or the panoply of absolutely identical salt pots from Japan or China (Chen, 2004), not to mention the Iron Age pots found in briquetages in the Saale valley in Germany which, in their older form have identical bases (Kleinmann, 1975).
67We suggest that there is enough circumstantial evidence for the existence of artisanal methods for making salt in this part of Italy for our hypothesis to be put to the test in the future, namely:
a distribution of enclosures at the edge of areas that in the Neolithic were part of strand, estuary, tidal zone or lagoon systems, although this is not to say that all the enclosures of the Tavoliere are necessarily linked to intra muros salt production, just as not all the enclosures round the Marais Poitevin in France, where this activity was first recognised in a marine context, are the result of salterns;
the efforts to seal pits and channels dug for the circulation, storage or treatment of water and make them water tight, go well beyond a drainage system required for dwellings but coincide with the idea of drainage put forward by our colleague, S. Tinè, for certain square excavated structures;
« C » – shaped ditches that are systematically oriented in relation to the slope of the terrain, that is to say, open towards the summit in order to retain the water or for it to circulate by gravity even though there is always the exception that proves the rule: the Mezzana Comunale site in Trinitapoli, bordering on a lagoon and the present day saltpans of Salpi where, on totally flat ground, these « C » shaped ditches are oriented in several directions to compensate for the lack of a natural slope (Quaranta et al., 2003); in a 21st century context, in Mali, half-moon structures are used for water-harvesting and give interesting analogies (Journal du CNRS n° 204, 2006 – Our thanks to B. Muller, agro-meteorologist, CIRAD, for his information on the topic);
a system of: a- rectilinear canaletti or circular pit structures very similar to workshop organisation (furnaces with ditch) identified for the Iron Age in Brittany (Hirel – Daire, 1994; Guérande – Etienne excavations, 1996), northern France (Sorrus – Weller, Desfossés, 2002) or in England (Helpringham Fen – Lane, Morris, 2002), and: b- moat and levee structures (a protection against invading water?) such as those of Vasche Napoletane or not far from Passo di Corvo where, despite the numerous Neolithic vestiges, marine salt production is said begin in the Bronze Age (Tunzi Sisto, 1991);
pits can sometimes be segmented, divided by low walls which are also made watertight and invariably bring to mind a wish to gain mastery over water as in the more recent context of the Lincolnshire Fens (Lane, Morris, 2002);
a ceramic typology, marked by the cylindrical morphology of the containers which bring to mind specialised productions like those for heating brine using, not dishes with sub-vertical sides but, in this case, truncated vessels suspended or placed over the furnace; highly fragmented remains, neglected by typical analyses, but which deserve a more detailed examination of the clays and tempering materials as well as signs of subsequent alteration and physical and chemical analyses that could be successful in comparable archaeological contexts (Flad et al., 2005).
68Let us add that remarkable form, incorrectly called a rhyton by those who study the Neolithic which, in Greece, Albania, Italy as well as Croatia and Slovenia, starting from the Starcevo phase, was interpreted as being a salt pot by John Chapman in 1988; an interpretation we fully support, though not everyone has been convinced (Perić, 1996).
69In Greece, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy this pottery is found in coastal areas (shores, estuaries and low lying ground) whereas in Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina it is found on higher ground (fig. 10, p. 196):
generally speaking the pots are highly decorated and include a handle, a container with an oblique, round or oval aperture and feet (usually four);
the form is frequently zoomorphic (an undetermined quadruped) with at least one anthropomorphic example (Smilčić);
this type of vessel is rarely found intact or even archaeologically complete; usually fragmented but easily recognised by all its unusual features.
70When it comes to the supports under the vessel, the literature sometimes refers to cows udders rather than zoomorphic legs a hypothesis we do not subscribe to especially if we compare these « feet » to those observed under the pots with a square or round aperture of the Fikirtepe culture in Turkey (6200 to 5500 B.C. – Özdogan & Basgelen, 1999). The proportions and design of the feet can be superposed although no relationship has been formulated despite the geographical proximity of the area of comparison (the Bosphorus).
71The cylinder shape is also very close to the stoneware salt pots (used for storage or presentation) that were common in Europe from the Middle Ages and continue to be made in salt producing areas to this day (e.g. Guérande, France, fig. 10, p. 196). Before the age of additives which absorbed moisture and the subsequent introduction of « table salt », this particular shape was designed to protect the salt from humidity while leaving an aperture for the hand or the salt spoon. Above all the vault prevented humidity, ever present in unadulterated mineral, from dripping back on to the salt crystals.
72In the Middle Ages, the salt pot was placed at the top of the table, to the right of the master of the wealthy household, thus reinforcing his social status. The English expression « below the salt » defined a person’s social status – he did not sit at the high table, where the salt cellar was placed in the centre, but at lower trestle tables and thus had no access to the precious condiment. In time the salt pot became the, often extremely elaborate, salt cellar, and earthenware salt spoons were replaced by porcelain or silver.
73While on the subject of social status, let us not forget the existence of fine, highly polished axes in alpine stone which echo a western European phenomenon (Pétrequin et al., 1997) or the Vrbnik example on the island of Krk in Croatia (fig. 10, p. 196 – Petric, 2004, p. 202) found, not surprisingly, on the shores of the Bay of Soline which was reputed for its salt production in Roman times.
74In short, this rare pottery form is found in the earliest Neolithic levels in Western Europe but also, in the first half of the 5th millennium, on the shores of the Adriatic. Perhaps it is the visible, but misunderstood, part of the salt production and diffusion process among early agricultural communities. We cannot help drawing an analogy, in terms of behaviour, between this form and the coupe-à-socle/vase-à-pied-creux pair of the Armorique Neolithic. Their enigmatic function, the structure of the main decorative elements, their fragmentation when not found in a burial context as well as the nature of the image and the metaphor suggested (no physical contact assumed with the ground for the container) all lead us to interpret these ceramic families using a common grid.
75And, just for the record, a few kilometres from Passo di Corvo a specimen was found in the ditch enclosures of Lagnano da Piede (4850- 4500 B.C. ; Perić, 1996, p. 22).
Figure 10: The map shows the Neolithic sites at which rhytons or « salt pots » were found in the Balkans and the Adriatic

Note: Pottery: recent examples of salt pots or mains à sel (Brittany, Quebec, Aquitaine); the pot from Obre II (from Benac, 1971) is very similar to the Chinese Neolithic ceramics for salt production in Sichuan Basin (Chen, 2004).
Source: From Perić, 1996; Biagi, 2003, completed.
5. Cornwall
76Finally, a far more recent pottery type deserves the same close attention. This is a family of vessels introduced in to Cornwall in the sixth century AD and found mostly along the coasts of the western tip of the peninsula.
77Two types have been identified: dishes with almost straight sides (fig. 3, p. 179; fig. 11, p. 197) that we are especially interested in by analogy with the original model, and cooking-pots. The flat bottoms of the former show considerable carbon residue which has led the author (Thomas, 1968) to say that this is the result of direct contact with the fire; the lips – often festooned – are also incrusted with carbon residue.
Figure 11: Distribution of early Middle Age grass-tempered ceramics and Sandy Lane pottery in Cornwall

Source: From Thomas 1968.
78A wheel is not used in the manufacture of these pots, which is exceptional for the period and the walls are unusually thin in relation to the volume of the containers. They are made from local clays with the systematic and voluntary inclusion of grasses gathered exclusively along the strand and the coastal dunes.
79Since the plates are shaped by hand from a single clay block and breakages are random it is very difficult to reconstitute the exact shape. The surfaces were finished off and made smooth, especially on the inside, by dipping a hand in water. They were probably fired at low temperatures and are therefore not very well fired.
80This flat shape appears to derive from the Gwithian, an earlier Cornish Roman shape. The earlier form, with a thin base and a better finish is identified as a plate on which individual portions of food were served.
81Once again certain features,
morphology (types, dimensions, thicknesses) of the container;
porous walls due to the inclusion of vegetable matter (a technical choice sometimes found in Neolithic pottery – most of the truncated vessels from La Mastine (Boujot, Cassen, 1997) – as well as in Roman Britain – Morton in the Fenland (Lane, Morris, 2002);
the exclusively coastal origin of the vegetable matter used for tempering the clay;
manufacturing techniques, unite the parameters discussed above round a particular pottery shape found only along the coast. Tests for validating the hypothesis could be established and would be immediately applicable. This link to more recent periods would be very welcome to establish the coherence of our main line of enquiry.
IV. Balance and outlook
82Thus, we started out with an intuition regarding a truncated ceramic form and a concentration of ditch enclosures and put forward a hypothesis for salt production in central western France in the course of the third millennium B.C. ; a hypothesis we went on to validate. Another exceptional ceramic form – in this case a dish – found in an usual Breton grave context is at the basis of another set of observations in which, the conjunction of on-site parameters and the repetition of favourable environments on a western European scale form a coherent whole, in archaeological terms, from the beginning of the fifth millennium. Whether dealing with the salt-rich sands gathered or sea water brought to the required level of concentration, as far as the different stages of the operation are concerned, we cannot go beyond conjecture.
83These methods do not exclude the possibility of a prior concentration in true « fake » saltpans such as coastal lagoons that are more or less permanent depending on the season and can, to a degree, be controlled by man. We could take examples from two distant corners of Europe sharing a common symbolic and mythical universe: the upper reaches of the emblematic low lying beaches of Locmariaquer/Carnac (Morbihan) on the Atlantic and Varna (Bulgaria) on the Black Sea (Cassen, 1991). The channels and ditches conveying water for salt production could have followed the natural topography of the beaches and wetlands dug out by tidal channels. In the Lincolnshire Fenland we have a far more recent, but comparable, example. Here we see how man depends on access to water, whether for retention, storage, decanting or evaporation, and the extent to which he can contribute to establishing artificial channels in what is an unstable environment, flooded twice a day, in order to obtain and heat the brine (Lane, Morris, 2002, p. 157 and 238). We understand, in this case, just how fragile the balance is when the least marine transgression can, in such flat low-lying land, sweep away all the storage and production areas in a single tide.
84This probably explains why water and salt-rich sand were sometimes transported over considerable distances. In the example from Normandy, described in Diderot’s Encyclopédie, this was due to high demand for fuel (a problem not faced in the Fenland where peat was abundant) and the very considerable tidal range in this part of France. It is very possible that the hydromorphic silts (containing diatoms) used in the construction of burial mounds in the Morbihan, proceeding from a marine environment several kilometres away (Lannec er Gadouer, Erdeven; Er Grah, Locmariaquer – Cassen, 2000; Le Roux, 2006) are the best indication of the builders’ the habit of, and the capacity to transport heavy, sodden soils. Moreover, these sandy silts are excellent fertilisers for grain crops grown on acid soils in a densely populated area, as is shown by extraordinary concentration of burials and settlement indices (survey carried out by J. M. Rivière for the INRA between Belz and Locmariaquer; Cassen et al., in preparation).
85Early salt-making, probably arising from the growing demands and needs of farmers and breeders in their new production system, as well as the structure, and even the order of the generalised exchanges, not to mention the fundamental changes in the cosmogony among hunter-gatherers, must have drastically changed the socio-political structure of local societies. This is our supplementary hypothesis. What if the most obvious elements of the proof we can reasonably expect are in fact those most easily found? Given the rise in sea level, the systematic demolition of furnaces, the disappearance of ashes and the repeated destruction of containers, we think that we have opened up research routes that, through extrapolation and the commutability of the factors observed, could lead to a greater understanding of prehistoric processes of marine salt manufacture.
86In prehistoric Europe, and elsewhere salt was, undoubtedly, a cooking ingredient in the move towards an agricultural economy, but it was also, and perhaps more significantly, a source of wealth and a yard-stick for measuring the capacity of the elite to maintain and to increase the ascendance of the social body, to display its status and to preserve belief.
Bibliographie
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Auteurs
Chargé de recherche au CNRS, directeur-adjoint de l’UMR 6566. Ses travaux tournent autour de quelques thématiques obscures de la préhistoire récente Ouest-européenne… Rangées de stèles, syntaxe de leurs signaux gravés, liaison organique aux tertres funéraires et aux tumulus géants, et reconnaissance de la cohérence d’un système à l’échelle d’un site comme celui de Carnac… Il a publié : Cassen S., 2007, « Un pour tous, tous contre un… Symboles, mythe et histoire à travers une stèle morbihannaise du Ve millénaire », in Testart, Barray, Brun (dir.), Pratiques funéraires et sociétés. Nouvelles approches en archéologie et en anthropologie sociale, 12-14 juin 2003 (UMR 5594, UMR 7041, Laboratoire d’Anthropologie sociale, Collège de France, Centre de Recherche et d’Étude du Patrimoine, Sens), Dijon, Éditions universitaires de Dijon (coll. Art, Archéologie et Patrimoine), p. 37-67 ; Cassen S., Vaquero J., 2003, Les Marches du Palais. Recherches archéologiques sur alignements de stèles et tertres funéraires néolithiques autour de la baie de Quiberon (Morbihan, 2000-2002), Nantes, Ed. Taskil – Laboratoire de Préhistoire, Université de Nantes ; Cassen (dir.), 2000, Éléments d’architecture (Exploration d’un tertre funéraire à Lannec er Gadouer, Erdeven, Morbihan. Constructions et reconstructions dans le Néolithique morbihannais. Propositions pour une lecture symbolique), Chauvigny, APC, Éditions chauvinoises, Mémoire ; Cassen S., 1999, « Questions of epistemology and a working hypothesis about engravings of the 5th millenium in western France », in « Theory in french archaeology », Antiquity 73 (279), p. 198-205.
Ingénieur d’études au Service régional d’archéologie en Languedoc-Roussillon, chargé de la gestion du département de l’Aude, et rattaché à l’UMR 7041 du CNRS, équipe Protohistoire européenne. Formé à l’Université de Paris I, il a d’abord étudié les pratiques funéraires des premières communautés d’agriculteurs du nord de la France. Associé, puis intégré à l’équipe de la Vallée de l’Aisne (ex ERA 12 du CNRS), il participe aux travaux de cette équipe sur les sociétés néolithiques et protohistoriques du nord de l’Europe. C’est avec l’Association pour les Fouilles Archéologiques Nationales (AFAN) qu’il s’investit dans les premières grandes opérations de sauvetage archéologique en milieu rural (TGV Atlantique, TGV Nord, Autoroute A5 Melun-Troyes). Il a alors l’occasion de travailler sur la question de l’acquisition du silex au Néolithique grâce à la fouille de minières de silex. À l’instigation de S. Cassen et en collaboration avec A. Chartrain, il développe depuis ces dernières années des travaux relatifs à l’archéologie du sel dans la région où il travaille. Il a publié notamment : Cassen S., Labriffe P.-A. de et Ménanteau L., 2004, « Sels de mer, sels de terre ; indices et preuves de fabrication du sel sur les rivages de l’Europe occidentale, du Ve au IIIe millénaire », Caduernos de Arqueologia de la Universidad de Navarra, 12, p. 9-49 ; Cassen S., Labriffe P.-A. de, Ménanteau L., 2006, « Le sel chauffé des baies marines d’Armorique-Sud durant les Ve et IVe millénaires av. J.-C. : à la recherche (Ouest-européenne) de croyances et de faits techniques », in Hocquet J.-C., Sarrazin J.-L. (dir.), Le sel de la Baie, histoire, archéologie, ethnologie des sels atlantiques, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, p. 33-54 ; 2006, « De grands trous néolithiques : les structures d’extraction de silex du Pays d’Othe (Aube, France), éléments d’une chaîne opératoire originale et partagée ? », in Frère-Sautot M.-C. (dir.), Des trous…, structures en creux pré et protohistorique, Montagnac, éditions Mergoil, coll. Préhistoires 12, p. 27-36 ; Labriffe P.-A. de, Loison G., Léa V., Hassler A., 2007, « De la fosse au mégalithe, de l’individuel au collectif : les architectures funéraires en Languedoc oriental et en Provence durant les Ve et IVe millénaires », in Moinat P., Chambon P. (dir.), Les cistes Chamblandes et la place des coffres dans les pratiques funéraires du Néolithique moyen occidental, Cahiers d’Archéologie Romande 110, Mémoires de la Société Préhistorique Française XLIII, p. 27-39.
Chargé de recherche au CNRS, responsable du laboratoire nantais Géolittomer et directeur-adjoint de l’UMR 6554 LETG. Géographe spécialisé dans les études sur l’évolution des littoraux, avec utilisation privilégiée de la télédétection et de l’iconographie ancienne, il a principalement travaillé sur celui de l’Andalousie atlantique (Espagne) et ceux de l’Amérique latine (Chili, Colombie, Haïti, Uruguay). Il a produit un rapport synthétique (et coréalisé une exposition) sur les salines atlantiques de l’Union Européenne (projet Sal du programme INTERREG III B Espace Atlantique, 2004-2007). Ses recherches actuelles sont orientées vers la géoarchéologie des zones côtières et estuariennes. Il a publié : Alonso Villalobos C., Gracia Prieto F.J., Ménanteau L., 2004, « Las salinas de la Bahía de Cádiz durante la Antigüedad : visión geoarqueológica de un problema histórico », SPAL. Rev. Prehistoria y Arqueología Univ. Sevilla, 12-2003, p. 317-332 ; Alonso Villalobos C., Ménanteau L., Rubio García J.C., Serveto Aguílo P., 2004, « Una visión histórica de las salinas andaluzas », in Las salinas de Andalucía, Séville, Consejería de Medio Ambiente, Junta de Andalucía, p. 25-46 ; Ménanteau L., Geffray O., 2004, « Géo-archéologie de la chora de Nymphaion (Presqu’île et Détroit de Kerch, Ukraine) : apport de la télédétection spatiale et corrélation avec les données archéologiques et historiques », Archeologia, PAN (Polska Akademia Nauk), Instytut Archeologii i Etnologii, Warszawa, 54-2003, p. 17-27 ; Ménanteau L. (ed.), 2004, « Pour une géoarchéologie des estuaires », Æstuaria. Cultures et développement durable, 5 ; Vanney J.-R., Ménanteau L., 2004, Géographie du golfe Ibéro-Marocain, Lisboa, Madrid, Instituto Hidrografico et Casa de Velázquez ; Alonso Villalobos C., Ménanteau L., 2006, « Paléoenvironnements et techniques de production du sel marin (par chauffage, salines solaires) à l’époque antique : le cas des baies de Bourgneuf et de Cadix », in Le Sel de la Baie. Histoire, archéologie, ethnologie des sels atlantiques, Rennes, PUR, p. 87-103.
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