White gold

The 1970s and 1980s discovery in Romania’s East-Carpathian area of the oldest traces of salt production in Europe, and probably in the entire world, has led to unprecedented advances of scientific research in the field and across the entire extra-Carpathian region. This volume features, in the first part, three major projects—one French and two others Romanian with French participation—focusing on salt archaeology and ethnoarchaeology in the East-Carpathian area. The second part of this volume includes a collection of papers previously published in various journals and volumes. Assembled within this volume, these three projects highlight the significant international relevance of Romania to the research of an essential mineral and its importance, despite its lack of archaeological visibility, for the development of prehistoric communities.