Salt Effect: Second Arheoinvest Symposium: From the ethnoarchaeology to the anthropology of salt  20-21 April 2012, 'Al. I. Cuza' University, Iaşi, Romania

Description

Salt is a biological and social necessity to human life. Salt has played a significant role in many ancient and modern processes, such as trade, preservation, health and cooking, which in turn makes the production, trade, transport and use of salt visible both in archaeological and historical evidence. This volume presents the papers of the Second Archeoinvest Symposium, From the ethnoarchaeology to the anthropology of salt (2012), held at the University of Iași, Romania. Many of the papers focus on theanthropology of salt in Romania, home of some of the oldest salt mines in the world and to an ancient and ongoing tradition of salt extraction and use. Also included are papers on evidence for salt use in other geographical regions including Mesopotamia,the Classical World and South America. Further, a selection of papers discuss the use of salt topically, such as the role of salt in magic and medicine, for example. The papers encompass a large chronological span from the Neolithic to the twentieth century. Papers draw on a range of disciplines including archaeology, ethnography, anthropology, medicine, geography, geology. This volume presents a fascinating and unique range of approaches for studying a ubiquitous and vitally important resource in past and present societies. Front Cover Title Page Copyright TABLE OF CONTENTS Editors’ note FOREWORD Anthropology of Salt: a First Conceptual Approach The Two Faces of Salt in Mesopotamia Salt History or Salt in History? Salts in the Passage to the After Life in Ancient and Recent Times Salt in the Adagia of Erasmus of Rotterdam A Latino-Hispanic Paroemiological Saline “Feast”, by Bernardino Gomez Miedes (Commentariorum de sale libri V) Traditional Production of Salt in Chile. The Case of Cáhuil Lagoon Salt in Magical Procedures Salt as a Metaphor Salt and Health Saline Aerosols: from Speleotherapy to Halotherapy The Perception of Salt Springs in the Romanian Geographic and Geologic Literature Salt Springs: Places for Salt Recrystallization and Ritual Centres for Exchange with Steppe Populations The Role of the Salt Supply in the Location of Neolithic and Eneolithic Settlements in Moldavia (Romania) A Pinch of Salt in the Prehistoric Eastern Carpathian Mountains (Romania) Salt Exploitation and Valorisation by the Human Communities of the Precucuteni – Cucuteni – Tripolye Cultural Complex Vessels for Transportation or Preservation of Salt Water (Brine) in the Starčevo-Criş Culture? – an Ethno-Archaeological Study New Archaeological Research Relating to the Exploitation of Salt in Bucovina Sources of Salt and the Territorial Dynamics of Late Bronze Age Communities in the Northern Moldavian Subcarpathian Region Sources of Salt in Dâmboviţa County: Geological, Ethnographical, Historical and Archaeological Perspectives A New Technique for Salt Block Preparation at Coza (Tulnici, Vrancea County, Romania) The Radial Model of Salt Supplying. Preliminary Remarks Saline Springs on the Moldavian Plateau. Dates in Unpublished 19th Century Archival Sources The Symbolism of Salt in Holidays as Expressed in the Pioneering Works of Romanian Ethnographers Simion Florea Marian and Tudor Pamfile Salt: Beliefs and Practices. Some Ethnographical Case Studies from Moldavia Paradigmatic Presentations of Salt in the Romanian Language and Folklore The Potential Toponymic Field of Salt Springs in Romanian Microtoponymy The Toponymy of Salt in Zamfir Arbore’s Geographical Dictionary of Bessarabia Use of Saline Aerosol Devices in School Gymnasiums: a Romanian Experiment Index of Authors