2023-07-17 06:00:20
Switzerland is a hub for commodity trading. Did you know that this activity represents 4% of Swiss GDP, and even 22% of tax revenue for the canton of Geneva. This week we are talking about salt. We will examine the use of salt in the ancient world. We will then look at the Saline de Bex.
This gives us the opportunity to admire the painting of Peter Claesz, Still life with a salt cellar and a lemon. This painting is deposited in the Myślewicki Palace, Warsaw.
ancient world
The discovery of salt dates back to the Neolithic period (10000 of J.-C.).
Men who had abandoned nomadic life for sedentary life felt the need to preserve food, especially meat and fish, with salt. Its use has been passed down over the centuries and several sources agree that the Babylonians were great users of salt to preserve the meat offered to the god Marduk.
Other civilizations also used it for religious purposes, notably the Egyptians, for mummification, but also the Greeks, the Romans and later the Christians, especially to defeat the devil. Salt was also used for medical purposes, notably among the Mayas and the Romans: Pliny the Elder, in 400 BC, devoted seven chapters of his Natural History book to this element.
During Roman times
In Roman times, salt became increasingly important, so much so that it was even used as a means of payment for soldiers, hence the term salary, still used today.
It was the Romans who developed and strengthened its production: new salt pans were built, particularly in the region of Ostia and Fiumicino, where archaeologists are still working to uncover the remains of these ancient and modern salt pans. Known as the Campus Salinarum Romanorum, were soon connected by new communication routes, such as the Via Salaria, from Etruria to the Adriatic.
At Saline de Bex
There are in Bex, the famous salt mines. The Saline de Bex is made up of more than 50 kilometers of galleries. The discovery of salt springs in the canton of Vaud dates from the 15th century.
Legend has it that a shepherd who grazed his goats near Panex above Oron and near Fondement near Vex noticed that the goats liked to drink from two springs. He tasted and found it slightly salty. Upon boiling, he confirmed his findings and noticed that the evaporation had left a thin layer of salt at the bottom of the pot.
Still life with a salt cellar and a lemon de Pieter Claesz
Here is the table of Pieter Claesz (1597/1598–1660)Still life with a salt cellar and a lemon (2nd quarter of the 17th century) which is deposited in the Myślewicki Palace, in Warsaw.
In the same series, “Raw materials and art”:
Cereals and Van Gogh Coffee and culture Cotton and Edgar Degas Cocoa and Luis Meléndez Sugar and Sartre Copper and Chardin Steel and Gayle Hermick Maize and Jean Mortel Biogas and Victor Hugo Hydrogen and the globe aerostatic The wind, Da Vinci and Monnet The sun and Firedrich Gold and Klimt Barley and antiquity Soy and Seikei Zusetsu Aluminum and Jule Verne Rice and Morimura Gitō Money and the Elblag museum Tin and Jean Treck Oats and Géricault Milk and Vermeer Water and Renoir Potatoes and Millet Lapis lazuli and the Scrovegni chapel in Padua Honey and Pierre de Cosimo Sorbet and the Ottoman sorbet seller Spices and the Moluccas Marble and the Venus de Milo The olive tree and the painter of Antimenes The paper and a woodcut from the Tiangong Kaiwu Wool and Jakob Jordaens Vanilla and the Florentine codex Tea and its legends
Sources :
The history of salt: from the Neolithic to the present day – The Password (wordpress.com)
The Salt Mines – Municipality of Bex
Photo credit : Peter ClaeszPublic domain, via Wikimedia Commons
1689577751
#Raw #materials #art #Salt #Saline #Bex