Archaeological and ethnological studies have shown that ancient people created salt through solar evaporation or boiling salt water. And in most cases, especially in prehistoric times in Europe and Asia, salt water was obtained from inland salt water streams and lakes with high salinity. In Vietnam, the Sa Huynh culture residents reached a high level of iron smelting and glass casting, so of course they knew about salt making very early.
Making salt on rocks
Trang Muoi is a local name, a flat area specializing in making salt on rock surfaces. Trang Muoi has an exposed rock foundation with good durability, ensuring long-term survival under the constant erosion of sea waves and seawater, and the salt field heritage landscape is preserved to this day.
Trang Muoi has an area of about 10 hectares, one side facing the sea, the other side facing the mountain, located near the residential areas and tombs of the Sa Huynh culture residents. Trang Muoi has 2 areas: the seawater reservoir area is quite large, seawater flows in naturally with high tides and waves, the water in the reservoir has been exposed to the sun so it has a higher salinity than normal seawater.
The salt field area on the rock is small cells on the rock surface with clay banks, or depressions. From the exposed seawater reservoir, people use small barrels to take water and pour it into the salt fields. After about 1 week, the seawater exposed to the sun will evaporate and become shiny white salt crystals, the salt grains are larger than normal salt. Residents in the Co hamlet area still practice making salt on the rock fields in Trang Muoi like their ancestors. Most of the ancient salt fields have the characteristic of chloride penetrating over a long time into the rock shell, causing erosion, giving it a dark black color.
Trang Muoi is the place where sea salt was produced by drying water on rocks by the Sa Huynh culture residents about 2,000 years ago. Compare with the ancient Yangpu salt field in Hainan (China) dating back to around 800 AD. This area includes more than 1,000 rocks, cut flat at the top, used to evaporate seawater to produce salt. These two sites share a method of drying seawater on rocks to crystallize salt.
Sa Huynh salt village is located in the space of the Sa Huynh Culture National Special Monument and is an inseparable element of this archaeological culture. The tradition of making sea salt has been continuously maintained from Sa Huynh – Champa – Dai Viet without interruption. Therefore, it is necessary to study the planning of the Trang Muoi site located in the Sa Huynh Salt Cultural Heritage Park.
“Unique” ancient salt-making area
At Go Co community tourism village, Pho Thanh ward, Duc Pho town (Quang Ngai), tourist can learn about the ancient salt making method from the Sa Huynh period, and experienced salt harvesting under the special guidance of local people.
According to researchers, the area used by the ancient Sa Huynh people to make salt is located in the space of the Sa Huynh Cultural Special National Monument.
This area is called the salt field, dating back about 2,000 years. The salt field has an area of about 10 hectares in Long Thanh 2 village, Pho Thanh ward, Duc Pho town.
The ancient Sa Huynh people took advantage of the rock foundation and available seawater to make salt for daily use. When the tide rises, seawater flows into natural reservoirs on the coast. The sunlight causes the water in the lake to evaporate, increasing the salinity of the remaining water.
Then the ancient Sa Huynh people took water from the reservoir and poured it into the salt fields. The salt fields are small cells on the rock surface, which are natural depressions or were created by people using clay to build the banks. About 3 days later, the sea water in the rock cells evaporates and crystallizes to create white salt. On average, one rock cell produces 2-3kg of salt.
Not only that, the salt valley can be considered a special ancient salt-making area, “one of a kind” in Southeast Asia. In addition to its research value, the rock salt-making area is located right in the national cultural heritage area, so it has great potential for tourism development, and is a great destination in the future.
Source: collected by An
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