17 February 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

6000-Year-Old Salt Production House Rewrites Europe’s History

Archaeologists in the UK have found an ancient stone age-era salt-production house in North Yorkshire, estimated to be older even than Stonehenge, UK media outlets reported on Wednesday.

Dating from the Neolithic period around 3800 B.C.E. the 6,000-year-old find is the latest discovery from the Street House Farm site in Loftus.

Finds unearthed on a shoreline near Loftus include three hearths, fragments of broken Neolithic pottery, a ditch, some still containing salt deposits, shaped stone artifacts, and a storage pit. All of the finds are cited as important evidence of salt processing.

According to Steve Sherlock, the archaeologist who led the dig, the finds are “spectacular and of national significance”.

The discovery is particularly important in that it can substantially rewrite the historical understanding of Neolithic England because the facility is not only the oldest facility found on the island but also one of the oldest facilities found in Western Europe.

This new finding, he explained, according to The Independent, indicates that properly settled civilizations developed on the island earlier than expected, with stone-age Britons transitioning into an agricultural society from a hunter-gather lifestyle. In fact, it pushes salt-making back by nearly 2,400 years.

Fragments of tools for salt processing found at the neolithic site in North Yorkshire
Fragments of tools for salt processing found at the neolithic site in North Yorkshire

Salt was an extremely valuable commodity, and the extraction process is very complex and implies a certain level of sophistication. In fact, according to UK sea-salt production expert David Lea-Wilson, “Any ancient coastal culture that was able to master that technology would have been able to expand their economy substantially,” according to The Independent.

Salt was essential to the expansion of the Stone Age. This is because it gave the people of the Neolithic Age the ability to preserve meat. According to the Independent, James Swift, a traditional meat preservation expert, said that effective management of cattle is almost impossible without salt.

In other words, the fact that salt can be used at all means that the entire early agricultural sector will undergo revolutionary changes. Male calves can be preserved after slaughter throughout the year, and cows have more grass, which in turn means more milk production.

And not only was this salt production house effective but according to Sherlock, salt-making experts said “you’d expect to find that in the Iron Age,” according to the New Scientist news site.

Through some archaeological detective work, Sherlock not only figured out how the salt-making facilities work but also first figured out how the process reached Britain. The pottery used to extract salt from seawater is a special type of bowl that can be traced back to France.

According to The Guardian, there is a theory that migrants from the north of France brought ceramics, and thus even technology, to Britain around 4000 BC.

Related Articles

Hidden Archaeological Treasures from Cologne Cathedral

25 January 2024

25 January 2024

An area of around 4,000 square meters (43,055 square feet) is being discovered beneath the Cologne Cathedral, the largest Gothic...

Works on Brussels metro line uncovered remains of the second city wall

18 April 2023

18 April 2023

Construction work on the new metro line 3 in Brussels, the Belgian capital, has revealed part of the second rampart...

Bronze age settlement found under in Swiss lake

23 April 2021

23 April 2021

For the first time, archaeologists discovered traces of a Bronze Age lakeside village beneath the surface of Lake Lucerne. The...

The ‘extraordinary’ Roman mosaic depicting scenes from Homer’s Iliad unearthed in a Rutland farmer’s field is the first of its kind in England

25 November 2021

25 November 2021

The 1,500-year-old mosaic discovered by a farmer was considered Britain’s “most exciting” Roman find. The artwork was discovered on private...

In Fraueninsel in Lake Chiemsee: Romanesque a central building hidden underground for 1,000 years discovered

25 February 2024

25 February 2024

On Fraueninsel, an island in Germany’s Lake Chiemsee, archaeologists discovered a cult site that may have been slumbering underground for...

“Human evolution” Migration out of Africa was affected by climate constraints.

25 August 2021

25 August 2021

The story of modern man’s migration from Africa still remains unclear in many aspects. Why did people migrate? Is it...

The Sedgeford Anglo-Saxon malting complex may be the largest ever discovered in the UK

23 July 2023

23 July 2023

As archaeological excavations resume on a hill in Sedgeford, near Hunstanton, a seaside town in Norfolk, England, now more evidence...

Electoral inscriptions just discovered in Pompeii reveal clientelism in ancient Rome

29 September 2023

29 September 2023

Several electoral inscriptions, the ancient equivalent of today’s electoral posters and pamphlets, have appeared on the walls of the room...

An inscription written in both runic and Latin script on a church wall in Denmark turned out to be still a legally significant promissory note

31 May 2023

31 May 2023

An inscription in both runic and Latin script on a church wall in Denmark turned out to be legally valid...

An 8,200-year-old temple structure found in Çatalhöyük

6 September 2022

6 September 2022

An 8,200-year-old temple structure was found during the 30th excavation season of the excavations at Çatalhöyük, one of the first...

Grave Goods Show Gendered Roles for Neolithic Age

16 April 2021

16 April 2021

Grave goods, such as stone tools, have revealed that Neolithic farmers had different work-related activities for men and women. Researchers...

Two Altars Used for Blood Sacrifices and Divinations Discovered in the Ancient Thracian City of Perperikon

14 September 2024

14 September 2024

In the ancient Thracian city of Perperikon, partly carved into the rock in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains of Bulgaria, two...

Unsolvable Megalithic Mystery of ancient Greek “Dragon Houses”

8 January 2025

8 January 2025

The Dragon Houses of Euboea, which probably dates to the Preclassical period of ancient Greece, are one of the historical...

Sicily: Archaeologists make striking discovery in Segesta

8 June 2021

8 June 2021

Archaeological excavations in the Segesta Archaeological Park, investigating a “monumental edifice” near the portico at the end of the old...

An inscription containing 15 headless falcons and unknown ancient rituals found in an ancient Egyptian temple

8 October 2022

8 October 2022

Archaeologists have discovered a shrine containing previously unknown ancient rituals during excavations at Berenike, a Greco-Roman port in Egypt’s eastern...