Roman salt pans

During the construction of the E40, Roman settlement remains and about 30 salt ovens were excavated here. The ovens were systematically built in the peat to extract salt through briquetage. In this process, the peat was used as fuel to evaporate the brackish water. During the Roman period, this site was still located at the edge of the Spermalie or Suthanagetijdengeul, a side arm of the Testerepgeul, which at that time dominated the entire area north of here. Salt was an important trade product in Roman times. Soldiers were paid with salt, and our word 'salary' is literally derived from that. Salt production likely constituted seasonal work then. The peat that the Romans used as fuel originated centuries earlier, about 12,000 years ago. As the sea level rose (the end of the last Ice Age), the groundwater table also rose. This resulted in lush vegetation with freshwater marshes; if the dead plants were not converted into humus, peat was formed. However, as the sea level continued to rise, a layer of sand and clay was deposited on this base peat. A slowdown in sea level rise allowed new freshwater marshes to form, which in turn led to peat formation. This surface peat still has a thickness of 1 to 2 meters in the soil today.
The presence of such quantities of salt and fuel is thus a logical explanation for the numerous presence of Romans along our coastline... although we must not forget that the Romans were not solely concerned with salt extraction. They also engaged in livestock farming (cattle and sheep) and coastal and beach fishing. Countless finds made in the region attest to this. The Romans seem to have abandoned our coastal plain from the end of the 3rd century. The reason for this remains unclear.

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