PREHISTORY, USE OF SALINAS

HISTORY OF THE SALT EXPLOITATIONS IN THE LAGOONS OF VILLAFÁFILA

The first safe news, archaeologically documented, of human settlement in the Villafáfila environment dates back to the Chalcolithic period or Copper Agecorresponding to 2,300 years before Christ, although stone tools (scrapers) have been found, ascribable to the Middle Paleolithic in Revellinos and Villafáfila, and some ceramic pieces in the surroundings of the San Pedro Fountain (a vertical handle with incised decoration) and La Pinilla (ceramic with reddish slip), in Villafáfila, which can be dated to the Neolithic, indications of the age of the population. These are deposits such as El Fonsario, El Torrejón-Las Almenas, La Pila, El Teso del Marqués, Pozo de Moiro, in Villafáfila, or Los Chozos in Revellinos, located at an altitude of around 700 m., which are not very close to the lagoons, in which there are smooth ceramics decorated with filled triangles, comb waves, etc., some metallic pieces, and stone utensils such as axes, sickles, knives, etc. arrowheads and boat-shaped granite mills that indicate a predominantly cereal farming and possibly hunting activity (with bone remains and deer antlers and wild boar tusks). The location of these deposits in a line of tesos somewhat elevated and separated from the current shore of the lagoons may be due to the fact that, at that time, the water level, as a result of a more humid climate, reached higher levels than current ones.

Neolithic ceramic handle from Fuente de San Pedro (Villafáfila)

Chalcolithic ceramics from Fonsario, (Villafáfila)

At a later time corresponding to the beginnings of the Bronze Age , 1800 years before C., abundant settlements appear along the shores of the three main lagoons and the secondary ones, and the streams that communicate with each other, from the Laguna de las Salinas in Villarrín to the Salina de Barillos in Revellinos, on small platforms, some of them with a clearly artificial appearance, that barely stand out above the current level of the waters, separated between half and a km from each other, where remains of hand-made ceramics appear, very rough, with thick tempers, some baked in the sun, most smooth, and the decorated ones, with applied cords, finger prints on the edges and lugs, with great formal similarity in all the sites. Only in the terms of Villafáfila are located 13 of them: in the Raya de Otero, Papahuevos, El Barco, La Rasa, Madornil, La Cabañica I, Laguna Salada, south of Salina Grande, Molino Sanchón II, Sobradillo, Celadilla, Tierras de Barillos and Prado de los Llamares. In Otero de Sariegos, at least five are known, from the outskirts of the urban area to the Villarrín line, following the shore of the Laguna de las Salinas, two in Villarrín and some in Revellinos, that the day a survey is carried out An exhaustive list of these towns will add many others to the list of those known up to now. The abundance of ceramic fragments concentrated in a few small spaces, and the presence inside the backgrounds of some pieces of deep digital imprints, made on purpose, to facilitate the concretion of salt when the water evaporates, and the coincidence of location with medieval human settlements with documented salt activity,

The best known of these deposits is that of Santioste in Otero de Sariegos. It is located on the shore of the Laguna de las Salinas, forming a small peninsula discreetly raised above the water level near the area known as Los Pinos, in the old municipality of Otero, today integrated into the Villafáfila Town Hall. The construction of a small dam, crossing the drainage channel that was excavated in the 70s, as part of the actions carried out by the Ministry of the Environment for the conservation and improvement of the habitat of this wetland of such importance for the birdlife, with the consequent elevation of their level, which would seasonally submerge the site, led to two emergency excavations in 1990 and 1991, co-directed by Ana I.

As a result of the same, various structures were revealed in the tastings, which have been identified as simple ovens, with a rather flimsy composition of mud and rudimentary adobes, which seemed to have been used successively, with destruction and reconstruction, surrounded by remains of abundant ashes, among which were appreciated a kind of crude clay cylinders placed upright as pedestals, some buckets, a silo and a narrow well, at the bottom of which were the remains of a ceramic vessel, in addition to abundant ceramic remains spread by the tastings, forming accumulations in some parts, like landfills of fragmented vessels. In addition, in a hole that crossed all the underlying levels, a burial of a body belonging to a young woman appeared,

Cooking of the brine in vessels over direct fire in ovens built for this purpose, until it crystallises. They were then poured in a liquid state into smaller molds made of raw clay. (Delibes / Viñé / Salvador 1998, p. 174).

From the study of the excavation and the location and abundance of the deposits on the edges of the lagoons, it is deduced that these people were dedicated to the exploitation of salt, by means of controlled boiling in ceramic containers, which served as molds for obtaining salt. salt cakes intended for distance trade through barter for other food or luxury items, which would provide a surplus, which allowed those who controlled these processes to become the ruling class of the communities, causing a social differentiation hitherto unknown or less marked, which would result in the richness of the grave goods of some burials (DELIBES G. 1993).

The interpretation of the excavations made by Germán Delibes de Castro, Mónica Salvador and Ana Viñé, in their joint work: Santioste, a salt factory from the beginning of the Bronze Age in Otero de Sariegos (Zamora), published in STUDIA ARCHAEOLOGICA , is fundamental reference for the knowledge of the salt exploitation of this time and its influence on the social structuring of the inhabitants of the region.

The first thing that draws the attention of these researchers is the abundance, variety and fragmentation of ceramics (more than 30,000 fragments), all of it made by hand with great formal diversity, ranging from large tubs to small bowls, and finishes, some made with very rough techniques, and the presence of pieces baked in the sun, all with few decorative elements. This, together with the scarcity of stone materials, the non-existence of metallic objects, apart from the grave goods, and the small number of animal remains on the excavated surface, leads them to think that it is a factory for the production of leave more than a place of mere habitation.

The chronology of this factory, based on the analysis of several charcoal samples, whose dating dates back to about 1800 years before Christ, and on the formal and cultural parallels of the ceramic remains, could be placed at the end of the Bell Beaker period and the beginning of the Full Bronze Age.

The extractive procedure deduced from the Santioste excavation consisted of the application of artificial heat to the prepared brine, probably obtained from groundwater, surely richer in salinity than the surface water, as confirmed by the discovery of the well in a corner of the main tasting, although without ruling out that in the summer periods the origin of the deaths was in the surface waters of the lagoons, coinciding with the period of greatest salt richness, which would be subjected to the action of the sun, as documented in these same payments in the medieval period, when we know that both systems were used.

As for the technical extraction procedures, this was carried out by subjecting large ceramic vessels filled with salt water to the direct heat of the embers in structures that look like ovens or cookers, to cause a concentration of brine close to the saturation. In a second step, the salt was transferred in a semi-pasty state to smaller containers made of clay baked in the sun that served as molds and were placed on a bed of embers on cylindrical clay bases, where a homogeneous temperature close to 70º C., producing a perfect crystallization of the sodium chloride, while the impurities formed by other salts are retained in the pores of the clay baked in the sun, producing balls or cakes of salt of maximum purity and consistency. If they had continued with the crystallization procedure in large containers, the solidification of the salt would force it to break in order to use it, with the consequent waste of pots that required more resources and more effort to manufacture than using them. easiest and cheapest to make sun-baked clay pots. In addition, the use of containers of a certain capacity made it possible to obtain uniform blocks of salt ready for sale, without having to subject them to modulation processes afterwards. The transport of the salt blocks could be carried out included in the pieces of clay, or the molds were broken, giving rise to the accumulations of ceramics that appear in the deposit. the solidification of the salt would force it to break in order to use it, with the consequent waste of pots that required more resources and more effort to manufacture than the use of sun-baked clay pots that were easier and cheaper to make . In addition, the use of containers of a certain capacity made it possible to obtain uniform blocks of salt ready for sale, without having to subject them to modulation processes afterwards. The transport of the salt blocks could be carried out included in the pieces of clay, or the molds were broken, giving rise to the accumulations of ceramics that appear in the deposit. the solidification of the salt would force it to break in order to use it, with the consequent waste of pots that required more resources and more effort to manufacture than the use of sun-baked clay pots that were easier and cheaper to make . In addition, the use of containers of a certain capacity made it possible to obtain uniform blocks of salt ready for sale, without having to subject them to modulation processes afterwards. The transport of the salt blocks could be carried out included in the pieces of clay, or the molds were broken, giving rise to the accumulations of ceramics that appear in the deposit. with the consequent waste of pots that required more resources and more effort to manufacture than the use of sun-baked clay pots that were easier and cheaper to make. In addition, the use of containers of a certain capacity made it possible to obtain uniform blocks of salt ready for sale, without having to subject them to modulation processes afterwards. The transport of the salt blocks could be carried out included in the pieces of clay, or the molds were broken, giving rise to the accumulations of ceramics that appear in the deposit. with the consequent waste of pots that required more resources and more effort to manufacture than the use of sun-baked clay pots that were easier and cheaper to make. In addition, the use of containers of a certain capacity made it possible to obtain uniform blocks of salt ready for sale, without having to subject them to modulation processes afterwards. The transport of the salt blocks could be carried out included in the pieces of clay, or the molds were broken, giving rise to the accumulations of ceramics that appear in the deposit. without having to subject them later to modulation processes. The transport of the salt blocks could be carried out included in the pieces of clay, or the molds were broken, giving rise to the accumulations of ceramics that appear in the deposit. without having to subject them later to modulation processes. The transport of the salt blocks could be carried out included in the pieces of clay, or the molds were broken, giving rise to the accumulations of ceramics that appear in the deposit.

The luck of finding a burial pit within the scarce excavated surface, possibly an old reused silo, containing the remains of a burial with its trousseau, allows us to make an approximation to the people who participated in the salt extraction and their cultural and social characteristics. . The burial of the body coincided with the abandonment of the factory and could have meant a sacralization of the place. Her remains correspond to a young woman, about 14 years old, lying in a fetal position on a reddish ocher stain, with her face facing west, holding a smooth bowl in her right hand. The grave goods consisted of a bracelet of bone beads in the form of small flat earrings placed on her left arm, a pendant on the neck with beads similar to those of the bracelet,

From the richness and exoticism of this trousseau, comparing it with other burials of the time, such as the cemeteries of El Argar (Almería), it can be suspected that it corresponds to a female character from the dominant caste of a hierarchical society, possibly the young wife or daughter of one of the individuals who would hold the leadership of the community. The arrival of silver and ivory materials, very rare in the Meseta, surely coming from the coastal regions of southern Portugal or Andalusia, must necessarily be associated with the existence of long-distance trade, in which the exchange of salt through barter procedures or gifts would be one of the predominant elements.

Possibly the control of the salt manufacturing and trade processes led to the emergence within societies, in principle egalitarian, of some individuals who gradually took control of the community, although the existence in the surroundings of the Lagunas de Villafáfila of numerous stations of the same type as that of Santioste can make us think of more decentralized processes of salt production. However, the appearance of some of these stations, such as that of Papahuevos, located as a peninsula on the shore of the Salina Grande, gives the impression that it could have been built artificially, with the consequent movement of earth by a relatively small population. numerous,

Something must have happened in the climatology or in the social structure, or in both, that caused changes in the location of the settlements of later times. The margins of the lagoons and streams that communicate them are abandoned, and possibly the extraction of salt, since the deposits of the Late Bronze Age (1200-700 BC) are located in areas around the lagoons, but not immediate to them, about 700 m. of altitude, in La Cantera, Valorio, Teso del Marqués and Teso de Santa Catalina, being the remains ascribable to the culture of Las Cogotas, representative of this period, much less abundant than those of the previous era.

  During the Iron Age (700 BC until Romanization) several high places were occupied, somewhat closer to the Salinas, such as El Cementerio Nuevo, Teso de Santa Catalina, Fuente de San Pedro, or the current urban area in Villafáfila, or Teso de la Fuente de Salinas in Revellinos, easily defensible. In this last place appear the only vestiges of Celtiberian culture in the region, such as ceramics made on a wheel and painted, superimposed on older materials .These ancient materials, ascribable to the culture of Soto de las Medinillas, along with remains of medieval pottery, are dispersed throughout plots near this site, along with small lagoons or floodable areas, concentrating in an area with abundant remains of ashes, which can correspond to a salt factory that when excavated can allow us to know the relationship that the inhabitants of the area could have at this time with the exploitation of salt.