Briquetage and salt cakes: an experimental approach of a prehistoric technique

• The briquetage technique is attested in prehistoric sites near brine springs.
• We tested through field experiments several hypothesis regarding this technique.
• The hypothesis that withstood the experiment is using salt slurry instead of brine.
• Prehistoric and experimental briquetage samples were analysed by SEM-EDX.
• The effort involved by this process reveal the high value of prehistoric salt cakes.

The paper describes the background, objectives, progress and results of a series of field experiments concerning the production of salt cakes using ceramic vessels known as briquetage, conducted within the framework of a larger research project concerning the ethnoarchaeology of the salt springs from the extra-Carpathian areas of Romania. The approach was based on the existing archaeological data – description of briquetage sherds and their discovery contexts, as well as on ethnoarchaeological accounts and previous experimentations. The experiments allowed some valuable observations on the distinct aspects of this chaîne opératoire: modelling and firing the briquetage vessels; exposure to fire of the recipients filled with brine or a salt slurry of varied concentrations; the amount of time needed for crystallization and hardening of the salt, dependent on the fuels used and temperatures reached; ways of extracting the salt cakes from the ceramic coat; assessment of the effort (i.e. labour and raw materials) involved by the whole process. All the failures, challenges and eventual successes encountered during the experiments granted an insight into an ancient technique, described mainly a priori in the archaeological literature. Also, it gives a hint in understanding the appreciable importance and value of salt in times when this essential mineral was not available as it is today.

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