Coeditors Ashley Dumas and Paul Eubanks and 12 contributors present archaeological and historical studies of salt production from eastern North America and the Caribbean. Eleven chapters, divided into two parts, are sandwiched between introductory and concluding chapters. The introduction by Eubanks and Dumas establishes the book's intention and scope, providing an overview of salt in human history and a brief summary of the abundance and diversity of studies devoted to it. This introduction contextualizes the subsequent essays and directs the reader to topics and literature beyond the book's coverage. Heather McKillop's concluding chapter reviews 10 themes, such as the organization and technology of salt production and its distribution through exchange and trade, adding further insights and analysis to the descriptions found in the preceding chapters.
In “Salt Histories” (Part I), two chapters consider prehistoric case studies in Alabama and Tennessee, two essays are historical studies from central Tennessee and New York, and a fifth chapter considers historic salt production in Jamaica. Dumas (Chapter 1) traces the development of salt production and its attendant changes from the advent of agriculture (ca. AD 950) in Alabama's Lower Tombigbee River Valley and Mobile-Tensaw Basin. Salt production and consumption were practiced locally until regional distribution increased as more complex cultures developed. Castalian Springs and French Lick are Mississippian sites in Tennessee (Chapter 2, Eubanks et al.) where salt springs and seeps associated with the two sites differ in chemistry and salinity. At Castalian Springs, one salt spring was utilized for ritual and ceremonial activity rather than salt production. At French Lick, processing of brine high in sulfur content suggests consumer tolerance in salt chemistry, or that different salts had a range of applications.
Kevin Smith and Eubanks (Chapter 3) illustrate how the low-salinity salt springs of central Tennessee were unsuitable for commercial development, forcing early Anglo settlers to obtain salt outside the region. Entrepreneurs soon recognized that salt springs were well suited to therapeutic, medicinal, and recreational purposes, and they developed a spa and resort industry that thrived into the early twentieth century. These places, the authors argue, have received little archaeological attention despite their potential contribution to the institutional and commercial dimensions of historic sites research. Ian Brown (Chapter 4) describes the industrial development of salt production at Onondaga Lake, New York, tracing its eighteenth-century beginnings and its growth as production technology improved, the workforce multiplied, and markets expanded. Salt production declined in the twentieth century but left a lasting imprint on the landscape and history of the region. Alyssa Sperry (Chapter 5) argues that Caribbean salt production is often overlooked because of the emphasis on sugar cultivation and plantations. Her chapter on Jamaica offers one approach to investigating an activity that was once widespread and that remains important on some islands.
“Salt and Society” (Part II) contains five chapters on prehistoric salt use in the Southeast and a sixth on the Turks and Caicos Islands. Steven Meredith (Chapter 6) evaluates a long-held idea for the possible correlation of Paleoindian landscape use with salt springs. His statistical measures using projectile point data, however, suggest a stronger association with tool stone sources, making improved locational data on late Pleistocene–Early Holocene salt springs and a larger sample of occupational sites necessary for better pattern recognition.
Three well-researched chapters synthesize the archaeology of salt production by Caddo peoples of Arkansas, Louisiana, and east Texas. Ann Early (Chapter 7) argues that salt making in the Ouachita River Valley of Arkansas dates to the period of early maize agriculture at approximately AD 1100, and that by AD 1500, permanent villages were situated near salt sources. Widespread trade in salt was absent until about AD 1650. As discussed by Nancy Kenmotsu and Timothy Perttula, sites in eastern Texas indicate household manufacture and consumption of salt beginning around AD 1300. The scale of production and extent of trade increased only with French contact around AD 1715. In northwest Louisiana, Eubanks (Chapter 9) finds no evidence for Caddo salt production before AD 1600 and concludes that this area did not become a major salt source until the eighteenth century, when exploitation of high-quality springs was required for curing hides and preserving meat. In Chapter 10, Maureen Meyers presents a circumstantial case at a Mississippian site in southwest Virginia for the manufacture and dyeing of cloth, possibly using salt as a mordant. Joost Morsink (Chapter 11) provides evidence for the prehistoric (AD 1300–1650) manufacture of salt and preservation of fish at a village site in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Here, the data suggest long-distance trade in these commodities with Hispaniola.
All of the book's contributing authors provide insightful knowledge about the prehistoric and historic production, use, and distribution of salt in eastern North America and the Caribbean. Coverage of the Caddo and southwest Alabama areas is notable for its clear presentation of chronology, technology, and the development and changes that occurred in salt production from the advent of maize agriculture by Native Americans until white settler colonists established industrial-level extraction. European settlers in the Southeast sustained the industry with limited success, whereas in New York, production thrived and contributed to the manufacturing economy well into the twentieth century. Alternative uses of Tennessee's salt springs, in contrast, were instrumental to tourism and recreational development. The book's Caribbean chapters are reminders that the use of salt by Indigenous groups before European contact was widespread and that its significance in the region's plantation economy is underappreciated. McKillop's conclusions provide a well-balanced perspective on salt's multiple roles in human societies.
