on the Northern
Adriatic Sea were probably started in Antiquity and were first mentioned in 804 in the document on
Placitum of Riziano.
Ancient world Early Neolithic salt production, dating to approximately 6,000 BCE, has been identified at an excavation in Poiana Slatinei-Lunca,
Romania.
Solnitsata, the earliest known town in
Europe, was built around a salt production facility. Located in present-day
Bulgaria, the town is thought by archaeologists to have accumulated wealth by supplying salt throughout the
Balkans. Salt was of high value to the
Greeks,
Tamils,
Chinese,
Hittites and other peoples of antiquity. In
ancient Jewish literature, the
Book of Job refers to salt as an important spice, while the
Book of Sirach ranks it among "the elements necessary for man's life." In the early years of the
Roman Republic, with the growth of the city of
Rome, roads were built to make transportation of salt to the capital city easier. An example was the
Via Salaria (originally a
Sabine trail), leading from Rome to the
Adriatic Sea. The Adriatic, having a higher
salinity due to its shallow depth, had more productive
solar ponds than the
Tyrrhenian Sea, much closer to Rome. The word "salary" comes from the
Latin word for salt. The persistent modern claim that the
Roman Legions were sometimes paid in salt is baseless; a
salārium may have been an allowance paid to Roman soldiers for the purchase of salt, but even that is not well established. s and drilling rig from Qing dynasty
Zigong, China, extracting brine from deep underground wells During the late
Roman Empire and throughout the
Middle Ages salt was a precious commodity carried along the
salt roads into the heartland of the
Germanic tribes.
Caravans consisting of as many as forty thousand
camels traversed four hundred miles of the
Sahara bearing salt to inland markets in the
Sahel, sometimes trading salt for
slaves:
Timbuktu was a noted salt and slave market.
Salt in Chinese history was both a driver of technological development and a stable source of revenue for the imperial government. In
Ethiopia, since during and likely before the
Axumite period and until the 20th century, blocks of salt called
amoleh were carved from the salt pans of the
Afar Depression, especially around
Lake Afrera, then carried by camel west to
Atsbi and Ficho in the
Ethiopian Highlands, whence traders distributed them throughout the rest of Ethiopia, as far south as the
Kingdom of Kaffa. These salt blocks served as a form of currency. supplied up to of the income to the treasury. Salt was extracted from the 13th century and continued until 1964. In 1996 the exploitation was ceased entirely. Cities, states and duchies along the salt roads exacted heavy duties and taxes for the salt passing through their territories. This practice even caused the formation of cities, such as the city of
Munich in 1158, when the then
Duke of Bavaria,
Henry the Lion, decided that the
bishops of Freising no longer needed their salt revenue. In
American history, salt has been a major factor in outcomes of wars. In the
Revolutionary War,
Loyalists intercepted
Patriot salt shipments in an attempt to interfere with their ability to preserve food. During the
Indian independence movement,
Mahatma Gandhi organized the
Salt Satyagraha protest to demonstrate against the
British salt tax. Evidence of Bronze Age production, c. 1400 BCE, has been identified in Somerset, Iron Age production in Hampshire, and Roman rock salt production in Cheshire. Salt was produced from both mines and sea in
Medieval England. The
open-pan salt making method was used along the
Lincolnshire coast and in the
salt marshes of
Bitterne Manor on the banks of the
River Itchen in Hampshire, where salt production was a notable industry.
Wich and
wych are names associated (but not exclusively) with
brine springs or
wells in
England. Originally derived from the
Latin vicus, meaning "place", by the 11th century use of the 'wich' suffix in place names was associated with places with a specialised function including that of salt production. Several English places carry the suffix and are historically related to salt, including the
four Cheshire 'wiches' of
Middlewich,
Nantwich,
Northwich and
Leftwich (a small village south of Northwich), and
Droitwich in
Worcestershire. Middlewich, Nantwich, Northwich and Droitwich are known as the "Domesday Wiches" due to their mention in the
Domesday Book of 1086, "an indication of the significance of the salt-working towns in the economy of the region, and indeed of the country". During modern times, it became more profitable to sell salted food than pure salt. Thus sources of food to salt went hand in hand with salt making. The British controlled saltworks in the
Bahamas as well as
North American
cod fisheries. The search for
oil in the late 19th and early 20th centuries used the technology and methods pioneered by salt miners, even to the degree that they looked for oil where salt domes were located. == Salt production ==