April 19, 2024, 10:46:09 am
Welcome,
Guest
. Please
login
or
register
.
1 Hour
1 Day
Forever
Login with username, password and session length
News
: ARE Search For Atlantis 2007 Results
http://mysterious-america.net/bermudatriangle0.html
Home
Help
Arcade
Gallery
Links
Staff List
Calendar
Login
Register
Plateau was ancient salt-making site
Atlantis Online
>
Forum
>
Atlantis
>
Geology & Atlantis
>
Plateau was ancient salt-making site
Pages: [
1
]
Go Down
« previous
next »
Print
Author
Topic: Plateau was ancient salt-making site (Read 214 times)
0 Members and 105 Guests are viewing this topic.
Huntress
Superhero Member
Posts: 2171
Plateau was ancient salt-making site
«
on:
January 05, 2010, 09:36:58 am »
Plateau was ancient salt-making site
By Dana M. Nichols
Record Staff Writer
January 03, 2010 12:00 AM
SAN ANDREAS - Hundreds of basins carved into a football field-sized granite ledge in a remote Sierra Nevada wilderness are the remains of what may be the oldest manufacturing operation in North America, according to a U.S. Geological Survey study whose results were released in December.
The researchers concluded that the more than 350 basins three to four feet in diameter were used to evaporate salt from the briny flow of a nearby spring.
"The water was carried to the individual basins, probably in water-tight baskets, where it dried in the summer heat, leaving a salt residue on the basin floor," said Jim Moore, USGS geologist and co-author of the report.
Report Spam
Logged
Huntress
Superhero Member
Posts: 2171
Re: Plateau was ancient salt-making site
«
Reply #1
on:
January 05, 2010, 09:38:52 am »
"Such a large enterprise produced far more salt than was needed by the local tribe for cooking, preserving food, and attracting animals for hunting, and they had a large surplus of the valuable item left over for trade with other tribes."
Moore and other researchers estimate the site could have produced about 2.5 tons of salt per year.
At least some scholars are skeptical that the site could be the oldest or largest salt production operation on the continent.
"There certainly were areas in North America where people were producing salt on a larger scale than that," said Michael Delacourte, an associate professor of anthropology at California State University, Sacramento.
A cave in Kentucky, for example, was worked by prehistoric miners.
"Sometimes miles into the passages. And that's been going on for thousands of years," Delacourte said. Remains of ancient torches and human remains made it possible to date that mining, he said.
Report Spam
Logged
Huntress
Superhero Member
Posts: 2171
Re: Plateau was ancient salt-making site
«
Reply #2
on:
January 05, 2010, 09:39:06 am »
At other sites on the continent, ancient people sometimes used earthenware evaporating pots to produce salt from springs, Delacourte said.
Experts on ancient trade routes say it is possible salt from the Sierra site was traded to people hundreds of miles away.
"Salt is an old trade item in aboriginal North America, so it doesn't surprise me at all," said Bill Swagerty, a professor of history and director of the John Muir Center for Environmental Studies at University of the Pacific.
According to the USGS report, "This site is the most impressive prehistoric saltworks yet discovered in North America."
Delacourte disputes that and also says he's skeptical that it could be the oldest. As with other rock artifacts, it will be difficult or impossible to date the stone basins.
At the same time, Delacourte said that salt would have been a valuable commodity at the Sierra location.
"All people everywhere want salt," Delacourte said. "The High Sierra and much of the western slope of the Sierra are salt deficient."
The geologists say it wasn't easy to convert the local granite bedrock into a salt-production factory.
Report Spam
Logged
Huntress
Superhero Member
Posts: 2171
Re: Plateau was ancient salt-making site
«
Reply #3
on:
January 05, 2010, 09:39:20 am »
"Fire was probably used to heat the rock, reducing its strength and making it easier to grind," said Mike Diggles, a USGS geologist and co-author of the report. "To deepen the basins just one centimeter, they had to build and maintain a hot fire on the rock, let it burn out, and then pound the bedrock with stone tools."
The creators of the salt works had to repeat this process about 100 times to carve a basin three feet deep into the stone. It would have taken several workers nearly a year to make just one basin, the report said.
The rows of evaporation basins and their consistent size are striking. And there's well-known history of salt production and trade among American Indians.
Yet there's been controversy over whether the stone basins are natural since European-descended scientists first saw the evaporation ponds in the late 1800s.
Henry W. Turner, who studied the area in the 1890s while working on a U.S. Geological Survey geological atlas, concluded it was "most likely" that the natural flow of water or the grinding force of a glacier created the basins. He came to that conclusion despite that fact that a man who had lived with American Indians in the area told him that they had been made for the purpose of creating salt.
Report Spam
Logged
Huntress
Superhero Member
Posts: 2171
Re: Plateau was ancient salt-making site
«
Reply #4
on:
January 05, 2010, 09:39:50 am »
The controversy is far from resolved. The basins' overhanging lips lead Delacourte to question whether they are human-made at all. "It is almost impossible to produce those by hand," Delacourte said. The water or glacial forces cited by Turner seem more likely to Delacourte, who also said he has not visited the site himself.
Moore stands by his science. He said he even did experiments, heating similar rock with fire and pounding it to determine it was possible to carve the basins six times more quickly than would be possible without heat. And he said the location of the overhanging lips on many basins makes sense given how the basins' creators would have had to work on the sloping ledge.
"I think we have pretty compelling data," Moore said. "We recorded those overhanging lips very carefully."
The Geological Survey report does not reveal the exact location of the saltworks. Federal law requires that as a measure intended to avoid attracting visitors who might damage archeological sites. The site's remote location and steep topography make getting there difficult, and as such visitors are relatively few.
Contact reporter Dana M. Nichols at (209) 607-1361 or
dnichols@recordnet.com
.
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100103/A_NEWS/1030314#STS=g42ttzx3.24o7
Report Spam
Logged
Pages: [
1
]
Go Up
Print
« previous
next »
Jump to:
Please select a destination:
-----------------------------
Atlantis Online - Messages
-----------------------------
=> Messages
=> Administrative Messages
=> Commemorating Dates in History
=> Alerts & Warnings
=> Upcoming Events, Releases & Ads
=> Television: Shows & Events
-----------------------------
the Coffee Shop
-----------------------------
=> the Coffee Shop
=> Atlantis: Polls & News
=> Poltical Alerts
=> Causes & Activism
-----------------------------
Videos, Documentaries & Online Movies
-----------------------------
=> Ancient History & Lost Civilizations
=> Ghosts, UFOs & the Esoteric
=> Music, Entertainment & the Arts
=> Conspiracies & Suppressed Knowledge
=> Documentary & Videos
-----------------------------
Ages of the Earth
-----------------------------
=> The Early Earth, Geology & Fossils
=> Dinosaurs
=> Catastrophes & Mass Extinctions
=> Ice Age
=> Humanity's Origins & Civilization's First Steps
-----------------------------
Mythology & Heroic Sagas of Culture & Myth
-----------------------------
=> Mythology
=> Greek Mythology
=> Arthurian Myth
=> Quest for King Arthur
-----------------------------
Atlantis
-----------------------------
=> Atlantis & the Atlantic Ocean
=> Atlantis: Theories & Speculation
=> Plato's Atlantis
=> the Scientific Atlantis
=> Geology & Atlantis
=> Atlantis & the New Age
=> Atlantis in the Media
-----------------------------
Satellite Discoveries & Alternate Archaeology
-----------------------------
=> Alternate Archaeology
=> Satellite Discoveries & Aerial Archaeology
=> the Bock Saga
-----------------------------
Maps, Explorers & Adventurers
-----------------------------
=> the Oceans
=> Islands
=> the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba & the West Indies
=> Explorers & Adventurers
=> Maps, Cartographers & Cartography
-----------------------------
Egypt & the Pyramids
-----------------------------
=> Gods of Egypt
=> Egypt & the Pyramids
=> the Giza Complex
=> the Dynasties of Egypt
=> Egypt: Latest Discoveries
-----------------------------
the Guanches, Basques, Berbers & Sea People
-----------------------------
=> Guanches, Basques & Berbers
=> Pirates, Phantom Islands & Stories of the Sea
=> the Sea People
-----------------------------
the Ancient World
-----------------------------
=> Neolithic Europe
=> Stonehenge & the Druids
=> the Library of Alexandria, Ancient Historians & Philosophers
=> Ancient Warfare
=> the Spartans
-----------------------------
the Dawn of Civilization
-----------------------------
=> Africa, the Cradle of Life
=> China & the Asian Empires
=> Eastern Mysticism, India, & the Ancient Far East
=> Zoroastrianism, Arabia & the Near East
=> the Sumerians
=> Ancient Asia Minor
=> Hawaii, Australia, Alaska & the Pacific Rim
-----------------------------
Ancient Mediterranean Cultures
-----------------------------
=> Minoan Crete
=> Phoenicians & Carthage
=> Mediterranean Islands
=> Israelities & the Kabbalah
=> Etruscans
=> Ancient Greece
=> Rome: Empire & Republic
-----------------------------
Ancient European Cultures
-----------------------------
=> The Picts & Celts
=> Ireland: History & Myths
=> Balkan History
=> Italy & Magna Graecia
=> the Vikings & Scandinavia
=> Germanic History
-----------------------------
Timelines of Ancient Europe
-----------------------------
=> History of Britain
=> Scotland: in History & Lore
=> Continental Europe: Past & Present
=> the Dark Ages
=> the Medieval World
=> The Renaissance
-----------------------------
the Ancient Americas
-----------------------------
=> the Ancient Americas
=> Peru: Mysteries & Prehistory
=> Mesoamerican & South American Cultures
===> Aztec
===> Incan
===> Olmec
===> Toltec & Teotihuacan
=> Mayan
=> Native American
=> Canada: Past & Present
-----------------------------
The Crusades, Templars & the Holy Grail
-----------------------------
=> the Crusades
=> the Knights Templar
=> The Holy Grail & Christian artifacts
=> The Sacred Feminine, the Cathars & Gnosticism
=> the Da Vinci Code
-----------------------------
Ancient Mysteries
-----------------------------
=> Philosophy
=> Ancient Mysteries
=> Lemuria, Mu & other sunken civilizations
=> Easter Island
=> Oak Island
-----------------------------
Archaeology & Anthropology
-----------------------------
=> Museums & Universities
=> Archaeology
=> Ancient Languages
=> Archaeological News
=> Underwater Archaeology
-----------------------------
Ancient Knowledge, Mysticism & Sacred Beliefs
-----------------------------
=> Ley Lines, Ancient Astronomy & Archeoastronomy
=> Prophecy, 2012, End Times & the End of the World
=> Sacred Symbols
=> The Ancient Arts: Astrology, Alchemy, the Tarot, Arcane Recondite Practices & the I Ching
-----------------------------
Search for the Sacred
-----------------------------
=> Angels & Angelology
=> Goddess Worship
=> Search for the Sacred
=> World Religions
=> the Urantia Book
=> Wicca, Witchcraft, Paganism & Ritual Magic
-----------------------------
Health & Healing
-----------------------------
=> Health, Healing & Medical News
=> Human Biology
=> Love & Relationships
=> Women's Studies
-----------------------------
Science & Technology
-----------------------------
=> Science, Physics & Technology
=> History of Science
=> Evolution vs. Intelligent Design
=> Human Genetics
-----------------------------
Earth Changes
-----------------------------
=> Earth Changes
=> Global Warming
=> Botany & Plant Life
===> Plants of the Americas that Changed the World
=> Antarctica & the Arctic
-----------------------------
Space
-----------------------------
=> NASA
=> Mars, the Red Planet
=> Life on Other Worlds
=> the Universe
=> Images from Space
-----------------------------
UFOs, Aliens & Future Science
-----------------------------
=> UFO's
=> Aliens & Alien Abduction
=> UFO Evidence & in the Media
=> Alternate History & Multiverses
=> Future Science
=> Time Travel
-----------------------------
the Occult
-----------------------------
=> Ghosts & Apparitions
=> Communicating with the Dead
=> Paranormal Events, Reincarnation & Near Death Experiences
=> the Enchanted World
=> the Supernatural
=> the Occult
-----------------------------
the Unexplained
-----------------------------
=> Cryptozoology
=> Bigfoot Sightings
=> the Unexplained
=> the Hollow Earth, Crop Circles, Strange Structures & Devices
=> Vanishings & Unsolved Murders
-----------------------------
Science Fiction & Fantasy
-----------------------------
=> Lord of the Rings
=> Science Fiction
=> King Kong, Gigantopithecus & the Mountain Gorilla
=> Godzilla, King of Monsters
=> Comic Books
===> Comic Book Creators
===> Videogames & Toys
-----------------------------
Halloween & Seasonal
-----------------------------
=> Halloween
=> Seasonal
=> Monsters of Myth, Movies & Folklore
=> Ghost Stories
=> the Zombie Apocalypse
-----------------------------
Genres of Film & Literature
-----------------------------
=> Universal Horror
=> H. P. Lovecraft
=> Horror
=> Dark Shadows
=> Twin Peaks
=> Online Horror Movies Sci-Fi & TV Series
-----------------------------
Arts & Literature
-----------------------------
=> Online Books & Research Papers
=> Classical Literature & Book Reviews
=> Art History
=> Architecture
=> Sculpture & Statuary
=> the Great Masters
=> Music
-----------------------------
Media & Film
-----------------------------
=> Cinema
=> the History of Film
=> Marilyn Monroe
=> Actresses & Models
=> Entertainment News
-----------------------------
Modern Historical Mysteries
-----------------------------
=> American History
===> Presidents of the United States
=> the World Wars
===> the Great Depression
=> the Holocaust
=> the Middle East: Past & Present
=> Modern History
===> the Industrial Age
===> Civil Rights
=> Great Cities of the World
=> the Kennedys: Their History & Assasinations
=> New York City: Then & Now
-----------------------------
September 11th, 2001
-----------------------------
=> September 11th: Conspiracies, Cover-ups & Remembrance
=> The World Trade Center Remembered
===> Life of the Twin Towers
=> Modern Warfare
=> Environmental Disasters & Mass Tragedies
-----------------------------
Suppressed Knowledge
-----------------------------
=> New World Order
=> Conspiracies
=> Suppressed Knowledge
=> Media Matters
-----------------------------
Politics
-----------------------------
=> the Barack Obama Administration
=> Conservatives, Trump, & Republican Politics
=> Joe Biden, Democratic Politics & News
=> Tea Party, Constitution, Libertarian Parties & Ron Paul
=> Politics & News
-----------------------------
Current Events
-----------------------------
=> Current Events & Odd Stories
=> The World Today
=> Financial News & the Economy
===> The History of Labor
=> Breaking News
-----------------------------
General Category
-----------------------------
=> Opinions & Editorials
=> Cartoons, Humor & Comic Strips
=> Ecology, Pets & the Animal Kingdom
=> General & Miscellaneous
=> Sports
=> Computers & the Internet
-----------------------------
Art, Graphics & Creative Writing
-----------------------------
=> Fantasy Art & Graphics
=> Creative Writing
===> Horror Fiction
=> Poetry
=> Photography & Models
=> Earth Images
-----------------------------
Past Events
-----------------------------
=> Case for Bush Impeachment/War Crimes
===> Bush Administration Torture Scandal
=> Campaign 2008
=> Atlantis Online - Memorial & Biography
===> Atlantis Online - Old Posts
Powered by
EzPortal
Loading...