Briquetage

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Under a briquetage you long a brick factory or brick-like painting a wall understood. The term "briquetage" was coined by de la Sauvagère. The brick-like, rod-shaped found objects were found in heaps on the upper reaches of the Seille in Lorraine and were scientifically described as early as 1740. The finds were given this designation because of their partly prismatic shape and their brick-like appearance and were interpreted as remnants of brick from "substructures for settlements or paths". In archeology , however, salt-boiling instruments from the Neolithic and Bronze Age were soon referred to with this term.

Briquetages are made of baked clay and were mainly found near old salt pans . There are three different types:

  • large pan-like vessels
  • Molds for drying and transporting the salt
  • small cylindrical socket

Variations of these devices were found in Belgium , Germany , England , France , Japan , the Netherlands , Niger , Austria , Russia and Thailand .

The salt was extracted in several steps using the variously shaped vessels. For the two-part Briquetages, the plinths were first placed on a prepared clay floor at regular intervals. The pan-like vessels were then placed on the pedestals and filled with salt water. A fire was lit between the pedestals to evaporate the water. The remaining crystallized salt was scraped off and placed in small conical beakers to dry. The salt was then transported in these containers called Augets . This is also one of the suspected reasons why this type of vessel is rarely found near historical salt production sites. Often they were also standardized, as in some regions they also functioned as a measure and means of payment.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brockhaus Kleines Konversations-Lexikon (5th edition), Vol. 1, Berlin 1911, p. 268.
  2. ↑ Claudia Beckers-Dohlen: Salt. The white gold of the Middle Ages. Part 1: the roots . In: Michael Wolf (Ed.): Karfunkel . Journal for history, re-enactment and histotainment . No. 138. Karfunkel Verlag, Wald-Michelbach August – October 2019, ISSN 0944-2677, pp. 6–14, here p. 7.

Web links

Commons : Briquetage  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Jacques AE Nenquin: Salt - A study in economic prehistory , Bruges 1961. (= Dissertationes Archaeologicae Gandenses , Vol. VI)
  • Petra Taieb: Salt, boilers, settlements - Am Salzigen and Süßen See in the Mansfelder Land of the Central German dry area , Hamburg 2004. (= Antiquities series, Vol. 28) ISBN 3-8300-1348-5