Talk:Salt: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:05, 14 March 2005

Revision as of 14:05, 14 March 2005

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:''According to the historian [[Henri Pirenne]] (''Economic and Social History of Medieval Europe''), during the High Middle Ages, the entire coast of the Atlantic was deserted and the whole Europe was thrown into a Dark Age of human under-development. It is supposed to be caused mainly by the lack of salt in the human diet, because all salt flats along the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean sea were flooded. The salt famine lasted almost 500 years, and many people died from dehydration and madness. Henri Pirenne claimed that the lack of salt went so far that human flesh was sold on the open-air markets and many people were so crazed that, to replenish their salt, drank blood from the neck artery of the person they had just slain. The rulers of the Medieval Europe grabbed the oportunity and exacted enormous salt taxes. ''

''If true'', this would be an astonishing and important part of European history. However, I went to school long after Pirenne's death, and there was nothing in my history books even remotely resembling this when I was at school; nor have I read anything similar since until now, although I am quite familiar with less dramatic phenomena like salt roads and salt taxes. Was this really Pirenne's view? Does anyone else hold this view? Is there any evidence for this? -- [[User:The Anome|The Anome]] 13:27, Mar 14, 2005 (UTC)

Looking this up on the Web finds several cites from apparently dubious sources. Still searching for a proper cite. On the other hand, [[salt famine]] does seem to be a real concept -- just not this one, apparently. -- [[User:The Anome|The Anome]] 13:32, Mar 14, 2005 (UTC)