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Salt Plaque

Not on view

Salt, a physiological necessity, was available in the desert and along the coast but was relatively difficult for the agriculturalist populations of the savanna to obtain. Urban communities along the Niger River traded agricultural goods and dried fish for large blocks of the mineral, which Saharan peoples quarried from desert rock-salt deposits.

Salt Plaque, Salt, pigments

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© Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY