Caddo and Settler Salt Production at the Holman Springs Site (3SV29), Sevier County, Arkansas

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Caddo homeland of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas contains one of the major source areas for salt in North America. Coming to the surface as brines, this resource was an important part of local foodways, economies, and political relations for centuries, both for the Caddos and the American settlers who occupied the area beginning in the 19th century. This paper examines recent research on the Holman Springs site, a saltworks with significant Caddo and Settler components, both focused on brine reduction. The varying approaches to the same reduction process illuminate differences in the roles of salt within indigenous and Settler cultures, the technologies involved, the economic and political relations entrained, and the environmental impacts created by the process. This research is a collaboration between the Arkansas Archeological Survey and Arkansas Archeological Society.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37565.0