Bronze-age and Neolithic-age sites for salt production have been unearthed in the area of Wonup Workers’ District, Onchon County, Nampho Municipality of the DPRK.

The research team of the Archaeological Institute under the Academy of Social Sciences intensified survey and excavation of the historical sites.

In the course of this, the team found salt water-storing and salt-producing sites, the first of their kind in the DPRK, in the area of the said area. The sites date back to the Bronze Age and the Neolithic Age (5 000-5 500 years ago).

The brine-storage site is domed in favour of storing salt water and divided into two cultural layers (the layers containing the archaeological sites and relics).

Found, in the upper cultural layer, were a stratum of hard mud used for storing salt water and the remains of containers dating back to the Bronze Age and, in the lower cultural layer, a stratum of thick clay mixed with wood ash used for storing salt water and the remains of containers in the Neolithic Age.

The salt-producing site, too, lies in the two cultural layers.

In the upper cultural layer, there were an oven with a flue used to condense salt water and the remains of containers dating back to the Bronze Age and, in the lower cultural layer, an oven without a flue and the remains of containers in the Neolithic Age.

The research team applied various analysis methods in cooperation with relevant units to make a comparative analysis of the ingredients and salinity of soil in and around the salt water-storing site. In this course, the team came to a conclusion that the sites were for the production of salt as their salinity was much higher than the soil around them.

It also verified, through scientific measurement of the production ages of the containers, that the clay vessels in the upper cultural layer were made in the Bronze Age (5 000 years ago) and those in the lower cultural layer in the Neolithic Age (5 500 years ago).

The Archaeological Society of the DPRK examined the analysis data on the sites, clay vessels and soil and proved that the sites in the upper cultural layer are the ones dating back to the Bronze Age and the ones in the lower cultural layer to the Neolithic Age and all of them are the sites where the Korean ancestors produced salt in the method of boiling sea water down.

And it estimated that the historical sites are of national value as they show the superiority of the resourceful and civilized Korean people and they are clear proof that the Taedong River basin with Pyongyang as its centre is one of the cradles of human civilization.

KCNA