Romania - Lunca

 Archaeological expedition title: Pre- and proto-historical exploitation of salt springs in Lunca and the surrounding area (Neamt county) - Director: Olivier WELLER

 Research topics and general overview of the site

This Franco-Romanian archaeological expedition, which began in 2004, aims to study the earliest salt production in Europe, an issue which has been the subject of significant debate linked to human sedentarisation, the development of complex economies and the emergence of hierarchical societies. Discovered 20 years ago at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, the site of the Poiana Slatinei salt spring in Lunca provides the earliest evidence of salt production in Europe, and even in the world, with dozens of in-tact hearth levels. It has recently been dated quite accurately to the first half of the 6th millennium BC (6050-5500 BC) with exploitation continuing into the 5th and 4th millennia and even beyond. The study of the earliest levels by a multidisciplinary team (palaeoenvironment and geoarchaeology) is now nearing its end.

At the same time, through systematic surveys in the area around the salt springs, the expedition has led to the discovery of other salt-production sites, one of which is remarkably well preserved. Excavations on this site began in 2006 (Tolici).

More generally, this expedition is concerned with salt springs to the extent that they have helped to structure the surrounding landscape from the earliest Neolithic onwards. To this end, it is employing a GIS-based spatial analysis series in order to define, for example, population dynamics in this salt-rich region as well as the development of supply zones and ways of controlling these limited resources.

^{Online: 02.23.09}