History Of Salt
Salt, NaCl, is a chemical compound made of sodium and chloride which has been exceptionally important to humans for thousands of years. Salt's ability to preserve food was a foundation of civilization. It helped to eliminate the dependence on the seasonal availability of food and it allowed travel over long distances. However, salt was difficult to obtain, and so it was a highly valued trade item to the point of being considered a form of currency by certain peoples. Many salt roads, such as the via Salaria in Italy, had been established by the Bronze age.
Today, salt is almost universally accessible, relatively cheap and often iodized.
Read more about History Of Salt: Sources, Salt Production, Other Salt Uses
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history and/or salt:
“The history of medicine is the history of the unusual.”
—Robert M. Fresco, and Jack Arnold. Prof. Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll)
“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Today is made of yesterday, each time I steal
toward rites I do not know, waiting for the lost
ingredient, as if salt or money or even lust
would keep us calm and prove us whole at last.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)