SC - salt mines

[Mark Harris]

ciorstan said:

But on the other hand, we're talking of a cookery custom of the Germanic
people, whose territory in even early period contained useful things
like the Hallstadt/Hallein salt mines in Austria above Salzburg ('salt
city')-- and if memory serves, Poland has salt mines as well. The
Hallstadt mines in particular have been worked since the late Bronze
Age. 

>>>>>>
There was a big discussion on the SCA-Arts mail list last spring or so.
It turns out that most of the salt used in the Middle Ages apparently
came from evaporating seawater. The mines you speak of were mined in
Roman times, but by the Middle Ages they had mined close to the water
table and it wasn't until later when mining technology improved that
they again became active as rock salt mines rather than brine mines.

I, too, have been curious about salt mining in the Middle Ages and have
it on my research list. Those interested in this might want to look at
these two files in the COMMERCE section of Stefan's Florilegium:

salt-msg          (23K)  8/11/97    Medieval salt production and use.
salt-comm-art     (18K)  1/ 9/97    "Salt of the Earth" by Lord Xaviar.

Lord Xaviar has promised me another article, specifically on medieval
salt production but I haven't seen it yet.

These salt mines of which ciorstan speaks do have a nice set of web
pages with photos highlighting their tours through the mines.

Stefan li Rous
markh at risc.sps.mot.com

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