Could the grasses have played a role in the earliest salt exploitation? Phytoliths analysis of prehistoric salt spring f
- PDF / 5,943,073 Bytes
- 14 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 88 Downloads / 166 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
Could the grasses have played a role in the earliest salt exploitation? Phytoliths analysis of prehistoric salt spring from Hălăbutoaia - Ţolici (Romania) Mihaela Danu 1
&
Claire Delhon 2 & Olivier Weller 3
Received: 3 July 2020 / Accepted: 18 October 2020 / Published online: 31 October 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The salt spring exploitation from Hălăbutoaia - Ţolici (Neamț County, Romania) dates back to the Early Neolithic and lasted throughout Chalcolithic. The deposit stratigraphy is estimated at 8 m and covers 2500 years of history (c. 6000–3500 BCE). In order to document the possible use of plants, particularly of the grasses, in the salt production process, we realized a detailed study of phytoliths preserved in several archaeological levels of Hălăbutoaia site. The most identified morphotypes come from grass family. Analysis revealed an important representation of inflorescence bracts phytoliths (especially ELONGATE DENDRITIC) showing the anthropogenic origin of the assemblages. BILOBATE are also well represented. These forms attest the presence of wild panicoid grasses (e.g. wild millet) and/or cultivated millets in the area. In some very punctual assemblages, forms produced by dicots are well represented. Considering the low phytoliths production by dicots plants, it involves a special accumulation of these types of plants that could be related to woody plants used as fuel for salt production. It is very possible that grasses had a very important role in pyrotechnology used to produce salt, either as the main fuel or as a mean for controlling the temperature or even as a firelighter. Keywords Salt spring . Neolithic . Cucuteni . Criș culture . Phytoliths . Romania
Introduction The sub-Carpathian area from Eastern Romania is characterized by a high density of saltwater springs: over 200 are Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-02001228-6. * Mihaela Danu [email protected] Claire Delhon [email protected] Olivier Weller [email protected] 1
Department of Biology, Faculty of Biology, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania, Carol I Bvd., No. 20A, 700506 Iaşi, Romania
2
CNRS, CEPAM, UMR 7264, Université Côte d’Azur, Nice, France
3
CNRS, Trajectoires, UMR 8215, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France
registered (Alexianu et al. 2007; Weller and Brigand 2017). The exploitation of some of these dates back from the Early Neolithic, during the Criș culture (Weller and Dumitroaia 2005), and represents one of the earliest evidences of salt production in Europe. Moreover, contrarily to other prehistoric salt springs in Europe (such as those from Germany or France), those from Eastern Romania have been constantly exploited through time, and the natural brine is still used by locals nowadays (Alexianu et al. 1992, 2007). The Hălăbutoaia - Ţolici (Petricani, Neamţ County) saltwater spring, discovered in 2005 (Weller et al. 2007) and highly concentrated in sodium chloride
Data Loading...
