JAKARTA - The discovery of a complex of sea salt production dating back to around 4,800 years ago on the Zhoushan Islands, eastern China, opens new clues about the economic life of prehistoric societies. Salt, which today looks ordinary on the dinner table, apparently has a long story about technology and the growth of civilization.
Launching a report by China Daily, Tuesday, June 30, the findings were announced by the National Cultural Heritage Administration at a press conference in Beijing on Thursday. Research on Zhoushan Islands, Zhejiang Province, has been ongoing since 2022.
Zhu Xuefei, an archaeologist from the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said the relics date back 4,800 to 4,500 years ago.
"This is the oldest and largest relic of sea salt production ever found in China," said Zhu.
The most important findings come from the Yaojiawan Site in Daishan County, Zhoushan. The site covers an area of about 60,000 square meters. However, the area that has been excavated is only 1,430 square meters.
At the location, archaeologists found the remains of a salt production workshop, furnaces, salt-making waste piles, a burning area, a deposit storage area, and facilities that were suspected of being used to process salt water.
They also found many containers for boiling salt and small jars of red clay that were likely used to store salt water.
The Yaojiawan site is about four kilometers from the sea. The word "wan" in Mandarin means bay. Based on laboratory analysis, Zhu believes that the area was in the past part of the bay.
Soil sampling research shows that the sea once flooded the area less than 1,000 years ago. Such conditions support the production of sea salt. Excavations also show that salt making activities at the site lasted until about 2,500 years ago.
To understand the function of the facility's fractures, the researchers used X-ray fluorescence analysis. This method uses X-rays to read chemical elements in objects, including calcium and other minerals that precipitate during the salt-making process.
Zhu explained that salt traces are difficult to trace because they are easily dissolved in water. Therefore, researchers are looking for other elements left on production equipment.
From there, the team began to rearrange the picture of the ancient salt production facility.
Chen Xingcan, a senior archaeologist from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China has many ancient records on salt production. However, the way the facility works in each stage still requires physical evidence.
"This new finding provides a lot of important information," Chen said.
The age of the Yaojiawan site also coincides with the peak period of the Liangzhu Culture, which flourished around 5,300 to 4,300 years ago. This culture is known for its jade worship, rice cultivation, and water management technology. Its center is the Liangzhu City Archaeological Site in Hangzhou, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Lin Liugen, a professor of archaeology at Zhejiang University, said salt production was likely one of Liangzhu's economic lifelines. The findings also raise questions about whether the culture ever extended to the coastal region.
The new discovery also explains a number of old clues. A 1972 satellite photo once showed many artificial mounds around Yaojiawan. According to Zhu, excavations now prove that the mounds are related to salt production residues.
Archaeologists also realized that many pottery fragments in the local museum that had not been previously identified were actually part of a salt production facility.
Chen believes that similar findings are not only in the Zhoushan Islands. In recent years, traces of salt production have also been found on the coasts of Jiangsu and Shandong. Although the shape of the vessel is different, experts suspect that there is a technology exchange line from north to south.
According to Zhu, these findings rewrite the cultural history of the Zhoushan Islands and open up new studies on human migration, coastal island development, and social changes on China's southeast coast.
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