Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (627 page)

Salin , Bernhard
(1861–1931)
[Bi].

Swedish archaeologist and the successor of
OSCAR MONTELIUS
in the State Historical Museum, whose penetrating analysis of animal ornament of the 5th to 8th centuries
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was published as
Die altgermanishe Thierornamentik
(1914). It provided the basis of the chronology of migration period metalwork.
[Obit.:
Fornännen
, 28 (1933), 1–46]

 
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General term used to describe a series of art styles of the 5th to 7th centuries on northern Europe after they were first described by Bernhard Salin in his work
Die altgermanische Thierornamentik
published in 1914. Originally derived from Roman naturalistic animal ornament, the Salin styles are characterized by anthropomorphic designs transformed by German craftsmen into an evolving range of surreal and abstract expressions. Although mainly found on metal work, they also find their way into the stone carvings and manuscript illuminations of Christian craftsmen. Salin style I is of the 5th and 6th centuries
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and features crouching quadrupeds, usually totally disjointed and with the various parts intermixed in a close-knit pattern. This style is the counterpart of Müller's migration style. Salin style II is 6th and early 7th century in date and has the same beasts elongated into ribbon and tendril designs which are intertwined and interlaced together. In England the animals are etched in double outline and the bodies infilled with dots. This style is well represented on the gold objects from
SUTTON HOO
. Salin style III emerged in the late 7th and 8th centuries and has a more naturalistic emphasis, but introduces a ferocious gripping beast to many designs. This is what eventually gives way to Viking art styles.

 
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A place where salt was produced by evaporating the water from brine to leave crystalline salt blocks. In northern Europe most salterns are situated on the coast and comprise a series of large open tanks that could be flooded with a controlled amount of seawater at high tide before being closed off to allow natural evaporation to concentrate the solution. When the brine in the open tanks was sufficiently salt-rich it would be taken to smaller tanks that could be heated by fires underneath in order to be further concentrated. In later prehistoric and Romano-British times, highly concentrated salt water would be placed in ceramic containers (briquetage) for final reduction and drying in purpose-built hearths. Inland, salterns are also found around saline springs such as in Cheshire, England.
Archaeologically salterns can be identified by the earthwork remains of the preliminary evaporation tanks and the extensive areas of burning associated with the reducing hearths. In Essex, England, these areas of burning have become known as ‘red hills’.

 
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In the 14th century
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it was found that the addition of salt to the kiln gases during the firing of stoneware meant that the salt volatilized and the resultant sodium chloride vapour fluxed with the silicas in the body of the vessels to form a soda-glass glaze. As a further refinement, a brown-coloured surface could be achieved by coating the vessels in a thin iron wash before firing. A patent was granted for the manufacture of such salt-glazed wares in England in 1671.

 
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1
An area of pasture.
2
Term sometimes used of a demesne in imperial ownership.

 
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North American term for the kind of systematic investigations, often partial, precipitated by development pressure or the need to rescue remains prior to their destruction. Based on the premiss that some work is better than none, salvage archaeology is the main source of archaeological information in areas where remains are constantly under threat. Because salvage archaeology is threat-led, it is only rarely possible to be selective about what is examined, and time constraints often mean that many of the more refined techniques of data recovery cannot be deployed. Known as
RESCUE ARCHAEOLOGY
in Britain.