Salt is an indispensable ingredient in preparing food. Not only does it add flavour but it is also vitally important as a preservative, allowing the meat of animals slaughtered in the autumn to be kept indefinitely.
Salt was one of the major commodities traded through Iron Age Europe. Saline marshes, like the seaward stretches of the East Anglian Fens, were exploited in Iron Age and Roman times to produce salt by evaporating sea water.
Archaeologists can easily recognize these sites from their characteristic debris - pieces of coarse, heavily charred pottery (briquetage) from the vessels in which the brine was boiled. Such sites were still in use in Europe in recent times.
More spectacularly, salt was also mined. At Hallstatt, the site that has given its name to the earlier portion of the Iron Age, a rich and extensive cemetery contains the remains of those who grew wealthy by mining salt here.
Salt's preservative powers have meant that, unusually, many objects made of organic materials have survived. These include the leather backpacks used to carry the salt, many items of clothing such as leather caps, and even a whole miner.
The cemetery contains about 1000 burials. The impressive grave goods placed with the burials include decorated pottery, bronze or iron swords and daggers and a range of elaborate bronze fibulae - the ancestors of our humble safety pin, which was invented in Iron Age Europe.
