Ethnosal - Workplan. The Objectives and Activities of the project

This project aims to investigate a territory of around 26000 km2, which comprise the counties of Suceava, Neamt, Bacau and Vrancea, recognised because of their SWS concentration. The method of the spatial analysis applied to the ethnoarchaeological research was tested on the 2/3rd of the territory belonging to the Neamt county (aprox. 3900 km2).

Even if the obtained results were remarkable, the information modelling through the perspective of spatial analysis, due to the extension of the ethnoarcaheological research to the entire pre-Carpathian perimeter, is necessary for the entire informational fundamentation of the global modelling.

This project takes into account the application of the spatial method in the field of the ethnoarchaeological researches related to the SWS. This innovative top direction in the sphere of the ethnoarchaelogical research is designed to alter the scientific research conducts for the subsequent inquiries, which should be extended to the level of the entire extra-Carpathian and intr-Carpathian area. It is obvious that the Romanian-French ethnoarchaeological researches concerning the SWS will impose a model of scientifical conduct for the whole subsequent inquiries on the European and world levels regarding the SWS and ethnoarchaeology in general.

Beyond the purely theoretical aspect, the establishment of the exploitation parameters and of the traditional utilization of the SWS presents important practical implications in the fields of the public health (through the identification of the noxious oligoelements of the SW issued from the SWS), of the halotherapy (counter-indications of the traditional halotherapeutic practices), of the rural economy sustenability (determination of the parameters specific to this parallel economy) and of the archaeologic and ethnographic tourism (touristic archaeologic and ethnographic potential).

On the other hand, from the cultural viewpoint this project practically saves from the oblivion the invisible patrimony generated by the existence of the SWS. The SWS exploitation testifies for the time being a paradoxical flourishment that will surely be followed in the next few decades by the total disappearance of this phenomenon, as it has already happened in the entire European area on the gradual economic development of the different areas in which traditional methods of SWS exploitation persisted.

The methodology of the research

1. Complex ethnographic inquiries related to the SWS, performed at the SWS, the seasonal animal breeding settlements, and exploiting habitations; Subjects involved:
   • localization of the SWS
   • identification of the exploiting habitations, transport, utilizations, (re)distribution network
   • identification of the trade, exchange, gift, hunting, extracting methods, symbolism
   • ethno-science behaviours
2. Geo-referential localisation of the SWS through the GPS
3. Spatial analysis method applied to the SWS-habitat implementation relationship
4. Archaeological surveys in the surrounding areas of the salt water springs and on a range of 500 m around
5. Employment of the chorographic method related to the concentration of the human habitation areas around the SWS.