title: Archaeological and chemical evidence for early salt production in China.
abstract: Salt production and trade is thought to be critical to the development of all states and emergent empires. Until now, however, scientific evidence of early salt production has rarely been presented, and no studies of early Chinese salt production have provided unequivocal proof. Here, we report x-ray fluorescence, x-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses that demonstrate that salt was the primary product during the first millennium before Christ (B.C.) at Zhongba in Central China. This work provides an early example of salt production discovered in China and presents a methodology for evaluating salt production sites in other regions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. rflad@fas.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Rowan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Flad
authors.forename: Jiping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Changsui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Pochan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Lothar
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: von Falkenhausen
authors.forename: Zhibin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Shuicheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li