Archaeological and Chemical Evidence for Early Salt Production in China

Salt production and trade is thought to be critical to the development of all states and emergent empires. Until now, however, scientific evidence of early salt production has rarely been presented, and no studies of early Chinese salt production have provided unequivocal proof. Here, we report x-ra...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2005-08, Vol.102 (35), p.12618-12622
Main Authors: Flad, Rowan, Zhu, Jiping, Wang, Changsui, Chen, Pochan, von Falkenhausen, Lothar, Sun, Zhibin, Li, Shuicheng, Hole, Frank
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archaeology
Brines
Canyons
Clay soils
Impurities
Pottery
Salt
Salts
Social Sciences
Soil salts
X ray diffraction
X ray fluorescence
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Summary:Salt production and trade is thought to be critical to the development of all states and emergent empires. Until now, however, scientific evidence of early salt production has rarely been presented, and no studies of early Chinese salt production have provided unequivocal proof. Here, we report x-ray fluorescence, x-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses that demonstrate that salt was the primary product during the first millennium before Christ (B.C.) at Zhongba in Central China. This work provides an early example of salt production discovered in China and presents a methodology for evaluating salt production sites in other regions.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0502985102