Boil the sea to make salt! Ancient "Shandong people" used "big helmets" to boil salt?

Salt is one of the necessities for human production and life. Legend has it that during the Yanhuang period, the Su (Su) Sha family "boiled the sea to make salt" along the coast of Shandong Peninsula. "Shiben·Zuo Pian" records: "Su (Su) Sha made salt", and was later revered as the salt master. "Yu Gong" also records that Qingzhou "has a wide seashore... and offers salt and silk as tribute". Salt was once offered to the central dynasty as a tribute from ancient Qingzhou.

During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Qi Xiang Guan Zhong regarded salt resources as an important strategic resource. When analyzing Qi's resources to Qi Huangong, he said: "Qi has Quzhan's salt." He also implemented the policy of state-run salt during his tenure. According to the records in "Guanzi·Qingzhongjia", "Guanzi·Dishu", "Guanzi·Haiwang" and other documents, the main contents include:

1. The government-owned salt system: the government controlled salt resources and production time

2. The government’s exclusive transportation system: after the price rises, the goods are transported to various countries for sale

3. Government monopoly system, selling salt according to population register to collect salt tax

"Records of the Grand Historian - Biographies of Merchants": "After Duke Huan had obtained Guan Zhong... he set up the price of fish and salt to support the poor and reward the virtuous and capable, and all the people of Qi were pleased."

The implementation of the state-run salt policy and the development of commerce made Qi increasingly powerful, and Duke Huan of Qi became the first overlord of the Spring and Autumn Period.

Archaeological discoveries show that the pre-Qin salt industry in the coastal areas of Shandong Peninsula was highly organized and meticulously managed, and was large in scale. The Shuangwangcheng Salt Industry Site in Shouguang, Shandong Province, excavated in 2008, is a typical community of sea salt workshops in the late Shang Dynasty, with large areas of salt ponds exposed to the sun and a large number of salt-boiling vessels.

Among the relics of the Shuangwangcheng Salt Industry Site Group in Shouguang, Shandong, there is a pottery shaped like a warrior's helmet, named a helmet-shaped vessel , which is generally believed to be a vessel used by ancient people to boil salt. The vessel is made of gray pottery with coarse sand, a straight mouth, a round lip, a deep belly with a pointed bottom. It is hand-made, thick and hard, and decorated with spiral coarse rope patterns on the surface.

During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, people usually used helmet-shaped vessels with pointed or round bottoms to boil salt. The oracle bone script and bronze inscription of the character "卤" are shown in the picture. They look like containers full of salt. Experts and scholars have verified that this is a pictograph of a helmet-shaped vessel holding salt.

The word "卤" in bronze inscriptions (picture from the Internet) The word "卤" in oracle bone inscriptions (picture from the Internet)

The shape and style of helmet-shaped objects are not static, and their general evolution is from round bottom to pointed bottom.

Evolution of the shape of helmet-shaped vessels (Image from Reference 3)

Similar round-bottomed or pointed-bottomed salt production tools have appeared in other parts of my country and some salt-producing areas in the world.

Schematic diagram of the Mayan culture's round-bottomed jar and the equipment used to boil sea salt (picture from document 3)

Schematic diagram of salt-making equipment in Germany and Nepal (picture from document 3)

In the exhibition hall of the National Museum of Marine Life, we restored a scene of sea salt production in the pre-Qin period on the Shandong Peninsula based on historical records and archaeological excavation data.

The small helmet-shaped vessel not only embodies the wisdom and efforts of the working people, but has also long been integrated into the continuous Chinese civilization, allowing us to travel through time and space to experience the hardships of labor and share the joy of harvest...

References:

1. State Administration of Cultural Heritage: "Shuangwangcheng Salt Industry Sites in Shouguang, Shandong (Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries in China in 2008)", February 28, 2012

2. Yan Shengdong. Salt Industry in the Southern Coast of Bohai Sea during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties[M]. Beijing: Cultural Relics Publishing House, 2013.09.

3. Fang Hui. Archaeological study of the sea salt industry in northern Shandong during the Shang and Zhou dynasties[J]. Archaeology, 2004, (No. 4).

4. Wang Qing, Zhu Jiping. A further discussion on the use and origin of helmet-shaped vessels from the Shang and Zhou dynasties in northern Shandong [J]. Archaeology, 2006, (No. 4).

5. Wei Qiaowei. A preliminary study on the salt production organization in northern Shandong during the Shang and Zhou dynasties: A case study of helmet-shaped vessels[J]. Oriental Archaeology, 2015, (No. 0).

6. Yu Chenglong. Typological analysis of helmet-shaped objects in northern Shandong[J]. Oriental Archaeology, 2015, (Issue 0).

7. Yan Shengdong. Documentary description of the early salt industry in Shandong Province[J]. Zhongyuan Cultural Relics, 2009, (No. 2).