Description
Book SynopsisSalt, once a highly prized trade commodity, is often overlooked in research because it is invisible in the archaeological record. This book brings salt back into archaeology, showing that it was valued as a dietary additive, had curative powers, and was a substance of political power and religious significance for Native Americans.
Trade Review“
Salt in Eastern North America and the Caribbean offers several new datasets from across the region as well as innovative conceptual frameworks for understanding salt production and consumption. To my knowledge, it is the first interregional consideration of indigenous salt production in this part of the world since Ian Brown’s seminal publication in 1980—now nearly 40 years old." —Alice P. Wright, author of
Garden Creek: The Archaeology of Interaction in Middle Woodland Appalachia“This book is a current and comprehensive survey of salt procurement in the Eastern Woodlands and Caribbean, with case studies from precolonial times to the nineteenth century. It illustrates the importance of a resource that was essential to life, but is often overlooked archaeologically. Focusing on the use of salines, mineral springs, and salt ponds, the chapters provide many useful examples of how salt production can be recognized and reconstructed using material evidence. It also shows the variety of social and economic arrangements with which such production was connected in the past." —Vincas P. Steponaitis, coeditor of
Rethinking Moundville and Its Hinterland"The volume
Salt in Eastern North America and the Caribbean, edited by Ashley Dumas and Paul Eubanks, is a multifaceted, wide-ranging, welcome addition to the literature on global salt history and archaeology. From histories of the study of salt, to analyses of the ways salt was made, to the uses of salt in other manufacturing processes, to studies of the impact on society, the book makes important contributions to the understanding of economic and social changes in prehistoric and historic Eastern North America and to the corpus of literature that demonstrates the significance of salt throughout history around the world." —Rowan K. Flad, author of
Salt Production and Social Hierarchy in Ancient China: An Archaeological Investigation of Specialization in China's Three Gorges “This volume is an essential resource on the history and archaeology of salt. It highlights the variability of salt production and salt use across time within two broad regions, the Eastern Woodlands of North American and the Caribbean. The book addresses not only the technology and economy of salt, but also the ritual significance and political dimensions of salt-making, both prior to and subsequent to European colonization." —Vernon James Knight Jr., author of
Mound Excavations at Moundville: Architecture, Elites, and Social Order
