A saltern is an area or installation for making

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

. Salterns include modern salt-making works (saltworks), as well as

hypersaline A hypersaline lake is a landlocked body of water that contains significant concentrations of sodium chloride, brines, and other salts, with saline levels surpassing that of ocean water (3.5%, i.e. ). Specific microbial species can thrive in hi ...

waters that usually contain high concentrations of halophilic microorganisms, primarily

haloarchaea Haloarchaea (halophilic archaea, halophilic archaebacteria, halobacteria) are a class of the Euryarchaeota, found in water saturated or nearly saturated with salt. Halobacteria are now recognized as archaea rather than bacteria and are one of t ...

but also other halophiles including algae and bacteria. Salterns usually begin with seawater as the initial source of brine but may also use natural saltwater springs and streams. The water is evaporated, usually over a series of ponds, to the point where

sodium chloride Sodium chloride , commonly known as salt (although sea salt also contains other chemical salts), is an ionic compound with the chemical formula NaCl, representing a 1:1 ratio of sodium and chloride ions. With molar masses of 22.99 and 35.45 g ...

and other salts precipitate out of the saturated brine, allowing pure salts to be harvested. Where complete evaporation in this fashion was not routinely achievable due to weather, salt was produced from the concentrated brine by boiling the brine.

Background

Earliest examples of pans used in the solution mining of salt date back to

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

times and the pans were made of ceramics known as

briquetage Briquetage or very coarse pottery (VCP) is a coarse ceramic material used to make evaporation vessels and supporting pillars used in extracting salt from brine or seawater. Thick-walled saltpans were filled with saltwater and heated from belo ...

. Later examples were made from

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

and then

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

. The change from lead to iron coincided with a change from wood to coal for the purpose of heating the brine. Brine would be pumped into the pans, and concentrated by the heat of the fire burning underneath. As crystals of salt formed these would be raked out and more brine added. In warmer climates no additional heat would be supplied, the sun's heat being sufficient to evaporate off the brine. One of the earliest salterns for the harvesting of salt is argued to have taken place on

Xiechi Lake Xiechi Lake (), also called Yuncheng yanchi (Yuncheng Salt Lake) is the largest natural lake in Shanxi in Northern China. It is a saline lake used for production of salt. In the summertime intense light and heat cause the algae ''Dunaliella sali ...

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

, China by

6000 BC The 6th millennium BC spanned the years 6000 BC to 5001 BC (c. 8 ka to c. 7 ka). It is impossible to precisely date events that happened around the time of this millennium and all dates mentioned here are estimates mostly based on geological an ...

. Strong archaeological evidence of salt making dating to 2000 BC is found in the ruins of Zhongba at Chongqing.

References

External links

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* Archaeology, arable landscapes and drainage ...Excavations at the Bourne–Morton Canal and the Roman saltern recorded.
Archaeology, arable landscapes and drainage in the Fenland of Eastern England.
* A medieval saltern mound at Millfields Caravan Park, Bramber,Wes
Medieval (13th-16th century) saltern mound

Definition of Saltern Mound
{{Salt topics *

Background

See also

References

External links