in the Zeeland region
K.A.H.W. Leenders
Published in: Lodewijckx, M. (ed.). Bruc ealles
well. Archaeological essays concerning the peoples of North-West Europe
in the first millennium AD. Acta Archaeologica Lovaniensia Monographiae
15. Leuven (Leuven University Press), 2004, p. 107 - 110.
According to a number of publications salt production was during the early middle ages economically important in the Zeeland region (south-western part of The Netherlands). (1) Many writers state that during the 8th and 9th century salt producing possessions of far away abbeys were repeatedly mentioned. (2) In reality the documentation is very meagre, both in the written sources and as archaeological finds.
Written sources
In 775/776 the abbey in Lorsch received as a gift among more also 17 culinas ad sal faciendum. (3) These culinas in which salt was made were as it seems situated on the isle of Schouwen, between the Scheldt river and a water called the Sonnemare. (4) The Sonnemare seems to be the border between the dominium of Voorne and the county of Zeeland. In later times it disappeared in the younger sea incursion of the Greveninghe. (5) It is not directly evident what is meant with the word culinas. According to Niermeyer culinas are sheds in which salt is made, in Dutch: zoutketen. (6) Koch translates the same passage in his Charterbook of Holland and Zeeland as "pans in which salt is made", in Dutch zoutpannen.
This interpretations of Niermeyer and Koch can not be checked because this passage is the only one in which the word culinas appears. The classical translation of culina is kitchen. A literal translation would say that there were 17 kitchens where salt was made. Therefore it is quite possible that buildings for salt boiling were meant. However, it can not be excluded that the writer of the charter in fact only meant the boiling pans but didn't know a Latin name for such equipment and therefor used the word culina. On the basis of the Codex Laureshamensis (edition Glückner) it can be excluded that the word culinas is a misspelling of salinas, the usual Latin word for a place were salt is made. A misspelling of the text, that is available as a copy from the years 1170-1175, seems very improbable. (7)
The abbey of Saint Gertrud in Nivelles possessed in 877 in Frisia terram et mancipia ad salem. (8) This possession was confirmed in 897 as in Fresia terra ad sal acquirendum. (9) Dekker thinks that this possession must be somewhere in Zeeland, as the Nivelles abbey never had any possessions in nowadays Friesland. According to later documents the possessions op the abbey were situated near Yerseke and Rilland, or perhaps near Ouwerkerk on the isle of Duiveland. (10)
In the Carolingian Capitula Missorum is a passage that by some writers is projected on the old Frisia that included in those days also the Zeeland region. It says: the people of the coastal region where salt is made, have also to come to the royal yearly court of justice. However, the passage is written in a very general context and can as well indicated the people of Aquitania in the Southwest of France. (11)
Ibrâhîm b.Ya'qûb, an Arab traveller of the 10th century, wrote: "The land is pervaded with salt and unfit to bring forth any plants or crops." He further described shepherds that dug out block of soil, dried and then burned them, but made no allusion to salt production. Dekker argued that this story must concern the Zeeland region. (12)
So we have only two sure early medieval mentions of salt production in the Zeeland region. Further there is one story about salt drenched soils and a mention that can as well concern Aquitania.
Archaeological research into the medieval salt production in the Zeeland region has scarcely done. In Axel in the years 1968-1969 on the Carolingian level a several meters thick layer of ashes from the salt production (in Dutch called zel-as) was found. Further analysis or dating of that layer was not done. (13)
At a number of places on the isle of Zuid-Beveland pits were found that were dug into the peat soil and that silted up during the 11th or 12th century. (14) The Zelnissepolder was arable land that submerged in 1134 and was not rediked again. According to the name the peat subsoil of the Zelnissepolder had been dug out for the salt production. (15)
The earliest medieval archaeological indications for salt production from salty sub soil peat were found in nowadays Friesland. There the peat was submerged by the sea already in Roman times. Radio-carbon dating indicates that during the 8th century peat digging occurred there and as in the neighbourhood ash layers were found, this is seen as an indication for salt production. (16) In now German Nord-Friesland the Frisian occupation on the Marsch dates, according to potsherds, only from the 11th of 12th century. The German author Prange states that this is also the period in which the salt production starts in that region. (17)
In the Northern part of Noord-Holland, also in former Frisia, archaeological exploration of the so called Road of Paludanus, showed that after a 10th-11th century period of agricultural use of the peatsoil, submersion with seawater followed. Afterwards the Road became the centre of salt production on a big scale. A good dating was not done, but it is suggested that this salt production dates only from the 13th century or later. (18)
The archaeology adds only one sure medieval salt production site to the two or three we found in written sources. Even so, that one site was in nowadays Friesland, not in the Zeeland region. We conclude that the importance of the salt production in the Zeeland region during the early middle ages is quite overstated in the Dutch literature.
Referenced literature
Blok, P.J.. 'Studiën over Friesche toestanden in de middeleeuwen'. Bijdragen voor vaderlandsche geschiedenis en oudheidkunde, 3e reeks, deel 6 (1892) 1-56.
Broecke, J. van de. 'Zoutnering in Zeeland in vroeger jaren.' (vervolg). Veerse Meergids september 1970, 10 - 13.
Broeke, P.W. van den. 'Turfwinning en zoutwinning langs de Noordzeekust. Een verbond sinds de ijzertijd?' Tijdschrift voor Waterstaatsgeschiedenis 5 (1996) 48 - 59.
Dekker, C.. Zuid Beveland. De historische geografie en de instellingen van een Zeeuws eiland in de middeleeuwen. Assen, 1971.
Dekker, C.. 'De moernering op de Zeeuwse eilanden'. Tijdschrift voor Waterstaatsgeschiedenis 5 (1996) 60 - 66.
Geel, B. van, G.J. Borger. 'Sporen van grootschalige zoutwinning in de Kop van Noord-Holland'. Westerheem 51 (2002) 244 - 260.
Geuze, M.A.. Zout in Zeeland. Wouw / Gapinge, 1982 / 1985.
Griede, J.W.. Het ontstaan van Frieslands Noordhoek. Een fysisch - geografisch onderzoek naar de holocene ontwikkeling van een zeekleigebied. Amsterdam, 1978.
Halbertsma, H., bezorgd door E.H.P. Cordfunke en H. Sarfatij. Frieslands oudheid. Het rijk van de Friese koningen, opkomst en ondergang. Utrecht, 2000.
Hoek, C.. 'De heren van Voorne en hun heerlijkheid'. In: Van Westvoorne tot St. Adolfsland. zpl (Middelharnis), zjr (1979).
Koch, A.C.F.. Oorkondenboek van Holland en Zeeland tot 1299. I, eind van de 7e eeuw tot 1222. Den Haag, 1970.
Niermeijer, J.F.. Mediae latinitatis lexicon minus. Leiden, 1976.
Prange, W.. 'Eine Berechnung der mittelalterlichen Salzproduktion in Nordfriesland'. Der Heimat (Zeitschrift für Natur- und Landeskunde von Schleswich-Holstein und Hamburg.) 89 (1982) 296 - 302.[foko zout]
Ven, G.P. van de (red.). Man made lowlands, History of watermanagement and landreclamation in the Netherlands. Utrecht, 1993.
Verhulst, A.., R. de Bock-Doehard. 'Nijverheid en handel'. In: Algemene geschiedenis der Nederlanden. I, Haarlem, 1981, 183 - 216.
Notes
1 Verhulst en De Bock-Doehard. 'Nijverheid en handel'; .Van de Ven, Man made lowlands.
2 Van den Broeke, 'Turfwinning', 58; naar Dekker, Zuid-Beveland, 66 - 76.
4 Also mentioned by Van den Broecke, 'Zoutnering in Zeeland', 10; Geuze, Zout in Zeeland, 7; Dekker, 'Moernering', 61; Hoek, 'De heren van Voorne', 117.
5 Hoek, 'De heren van Voorne', 120.
6 Niermeyer, Lexicon, 285 sub culina.
7 Letter of drs. G. van Synghel after consultation of dr. Camps, 3 juli 2000.
8 Koch, Oorkondenboek, nr. 20.
9 Koch, Oorkondenboek, nr. 22; meant by Blok, Studiën, 25.
10 Dekker, Zuid-Beveland, 34 note 43; 73, 75; Halbertsma, Frieslands oudheid, 184 places this site on the river Merwede and ignores Dekker's conclusions about Yerseke. Moreover it is very doubtful if the water of the Merwede was salt during the 9th century: it is too far inland.
11 Monumenta Germanica Historiae LL, sect II tom I, 1883, blz. 301, anno 821.
13 Van den Broecke, 'Zoutnering', 10; refers to Trimpe-Burger in Zeeuws Tijdschrift 1970, nr.1.
14 Dekker, Zuid-Beveland, 34 noot 43.
15 Dekker, Zuid-Beveland, 227.
16 Van den Broeke, 'Turfwinning', 58; naar Griede, Het ontstaan, 125 - 126.
17 Prange, 'Eine Berechnung', 299.
18 Van Geel en Borger, 'Sporen'.