Production and Demand of Salt in Ancient Italy from the Bronze Age to the Roman Period

This chapter presents an overview of current knowledge on the modes of marine salt production and related food production along the Italian coasts from the second millennium BCE to the Roman imperium. It explores the growing demand for salt in the context of the early urban Etruscan and Latin economies and the subsequent Roman colonization and examines the ways in which this challenge was met by technological change and geopolitical control.