[情報] evidence of large-scale salt production in ancient China
http://english1.people.com.cn/200508/23/eng20050823_204173.html
Archaeologists find evidence of large-scale salt production in ancient China
Large-scale salt production occurred during the first millennium before Christ
in the earliest "workshops" yet uncovered in China, archaeologists reported on
Monday.
In a latest joint study, researchers from China and US found multiple lines of
evidence of salt production at Zhongba, an archeological site lying along
the Yangzi River in Zhong Xian County, Chongqing, China.
Their paper is published on the on-line issue of the Proceedings of National
Academy of Sciences. The authors from the Harvard University, the University
of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Science and Technology of
China, are all internationally acknowledged archaeologists.
Salt production and trade is thought to be critical to the development of
all states and emergent empires. Until now, however, scientific evidence of
early salt production has rarely been presented, and no studies of early
Chinese salt production
have provided unequivocal proof.
But the four lines of evidence at Zhongba demonstrate that the main product of
the site was salt, said the researchers.
Several lines of historical and cross-cultural analogy point to salt
production. Pottery and ceramic vessels and debris excavated from Zhongba
are "structurally similar to ethnographically and historically identified salt
production facilities from Mexico, Africa, and elsewhere," said the
researchers.
The second indicator is the similarity between the chemical composition of
local brine and soil samples from archaeological features that are also
thought to be salt production facilities.
Analyzing local soil from production features with X-ray fluorescence, the
researchers found higher levels of calcium and magnesium as the results of
salt production.
The third data set comes from x-ray diffraction analysis of residues found
on the pottery at Zhongba. The mineral compositions of these residues are
consistent with those residues found on ancient salt-boiling pan, said the
researchers.
The fourth line of evidence, according to the paper, is traces of sodium
chloride on the interior surface of ceramic vessels.
Using a scanning electron microscope with an energy dispersive spectrometer,
the researchers said the ancient Chinese used these vessels to boil salt
from brine.
Therefore, the researchers concluded that salt production was the most
significant activity at Zhongba during the first millennium B.C.
"Furthermore, the homogeneity of the ceramic assemblage during Phases I and II
suggests that salt production may already have been significant in this area
throughout the second millennium B.C." they suggested in the paper.
The work, representing the oldest confirmed example of pottery-based salt
production yet found in China, also provides an early example of salt
production discovered in China and presents a methodology for evaluating
salt production sites in other regions, noted the researchers.
Source: Xinhua
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