Excavated Roman salinae at O Areal, Vigo · Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

Vigo Roman Salt Works

Salinae

SalinaHispania Tarraconensis · Vigo, Galicia, SpainBuilt 1 CE · Destroyed 250 CE

About

Stone-lined evaporation tanks stretching over half a mile of the ancient Vigo coastline made this the most sophisticated salt-works excavated anywhere in Roman Galicia. Southern Galicia holds a denser concentration of confirmed Roman salinae than any other stretch of the empire's Atlantic coast. Production here ran through the first three centuries CE before the marsh reclaimed the site. Workers uncovered the saltworks by accident in 1998 while building a health center in Vigo. The site fed the region's fish-salting industry, producing salt for garum and salsamenta as Atlantic Iberia's salted-fish trade expanded through the 1st to 3rd centuries.

What happened here

Shallow pans are cut into the flats behind a beach or a lagoon and filled at high tide through a gate. The water is walked through a sequence of pans, each shallower and saltier than the last, and the sun does the rest over the summer. In late season the crust is raked into ridges, left to drain, then carried off in baskets. The work is hot, glaring and hard on the feet, and it is done by contracted labour on a short season. Salt preserves fish and meat, cures hides and pays part of the state's revenue, so the pans are regulated and often leased from the state. A salina needs sun, wind and a tide, and it shuts down entirely when it rains.