Salt of the Earth
From TracingNetworksWiki
"Salt of the earth: the exotic and the everyday in bronze age Europe" is a sub project of Tracing Networks Programme
This project proposes to reconsider the evidence that links the Aegean world with the north and west, in the light of new finds and new publications that accord particular weight to the role of travellers. The extraordinary finds of amber from Bernstorf, Bavaria, and the exotic knowledge indicated by the Nebra sky-disc, have both been taken to indicate that travellers from the developed Mediterranean world met with and impacted upon worlds to their north. These matters need to be set in proper context, by considering the way that exotic materials like amber were produced and transported, but also how everyday substances such as salt were treated. Two specific tasks will be undertaken, as well as a more general consideration of linkages: the examination of the "Handmade Burnished Ware" that appeared in Greece around 1200 BCE, by concentrating on analogues in the Balkans and Italy (specifically making use of ceramic analysis, in conjunction with Whitbread); and the examination of salt production and distribution in central, eastern and south-eastern Europe between ca 1600 and 800 BCE, now that recent work has demonstrated the existence of hitherto unknown technologies for its production. The main goal will be to see how production varied across this vast space, and whether salt was moved from area to area. The project has close links to those of Brysbaert, Haselgrove, van Dommelen and Whitbread.
