Etnoarqueología de la Producción de Sal en las “Salinas Viejas de Santa María”, San Luis Potosí

Abstract

Salt has always been an essential element for human life and is used and applied in thousands of uses from food to industrial. The “Viejas” (oldest) salt flats of Santa María, located in the current municipality of Santo Domingo in San Luis Potosí, were discovered by the Spanish towards the end of the fourth decade of the 16th century, and from these the necessary salt was provided for the survival of the new towns founded by these and their Tlaxcala allies, and later for the benefit of silver in the reals of mines of Zacatecas mainly. This ethnoarchaeological study of the first salt flats located in the vicinity of Zacatecas, demonstrates a continuity in the methods and techniques of salt production that continue to be applied to this day.