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wheels of the caravans of heavy salt carts which trav eled the beaten dirt roads. These heavy carts, which sometimes required up to ten oxen to pull them, trav eled the isolated steppes of Ukraine from the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the markets of Poltava, or Kyiv. The salt road waggoners, were known as Chu- maky and the salinas from which they drew their sup plies were many. Some of these salinas were lagoons on the seashores, but there were other salinas on the mainland, as the salt lakes and mines of the steppes and the Carpathian Mountains provided an almost equal amount of salt as the coastal region .3 Recently, there has been a rebirth of interest in these Ukrainian salt roads. One instance of this is the ethnographic project of Professor Pavlo Fedaka, Direc tor of the Tran scarp athian Museum, who in 1989 con ducted an expedition along the Salt Roads of Ukraine. This project revealed that people remembered some of the traditional Chumak folksongs and had vivid memo ries of grandparents who were involved in the Salt Trade .4 It also revealed that some of the Salt Road have to this day remained historical landmarks, espe cially in the vicinity of Poltava (see map) where they are still known by their traditional names. Salt from the Black Sea The Ukrainian shore of the Black Sea is a semi-circular curve interrupted by the diamond shaped Crimean peninsula which isolates the Sea of Azov from the main body of the Black Sea. The shore can be traced from the marshy and swampy Danube delta along subsequent deltas of other rivers, especially the Dniester, Boh and Dnipro. Some river waters are strong enough to break through the marine deposits and flow into the sea. Other smaller rivers do not gen erate enough power to break through the marine de posit and their waters are sealed off from the sea by sandbars forming small lagoons called “lemans.” In times of flood or during storms, seawater invades these lemans, creating a special Black Sea landscape, the result of “emergence and subsequent submergence.” From West to East some lemans became fa mous, such as Kuialnytsky, Khadzhybeisky, Tylyhul- sky lemans, and further north, near the Dnipro delta, the lemans of Tender, and Dzharylhak. Along the low coast of the Crimean peninsula, lemans turn to lagoons or large salt lakes. The shoreline of the Sea of Azov offers a miniature picture of the Black Sea. Here again, small rivers such as Molochna and Yeia end in lemans. There are continuous double currents in the straits of the Bosphorus and the Kerch due to the dif ference of salinity of the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Azov. Low saline waters from the Sea of Azov flow on the surface into the Black Sea and from the Black Sea towards the Mediterranean while high saline deep currents flow in the reverse direction. Salt Roads of Ukraine in history and art Most of the Salt Roads traveled by the Chu- maky originated from these lemans and lagoons .6 However, on the main land, there were also salty lakes in depressions of saline soils. They could be found in the steppe as well as in the mountains. They were called “pody” and they were the result of the leaching out of salts from the soils also known as “licks.” Peo ple would gather salty waters and through evaporation harvest the salt needed to preserve food, for making soap, and for manufacturing ammunitions. That was the case in Western Ukraine, where salt came from the mines of the Carpathian Mountains and from licks or rocks of salt that appear above the ground or near the surface of the ground. In Central Europe the most famous salt mines were in the Carpathian Mountains. These were located in Galicia, Southern Poland, Slovakia, and Austria. The oldest salt mine in Austria was at Hallstatt. The purest rock salt mine as well as the largest salt mine was at Wieliczka in Poland. It was so famous that in the Diderot's eighteenth century Encyclopedia there is a double plate illustrating that mine. Mines were opened and closed by governmental edict, because they were state owned. However in some parts of the country, people could find brine or salty water in local ponds. They would boil this brine on their stoves and let it evaporate until they would get a deposit of salt. Recently some researchers of Ukrainian wedding tradi tions visited the village of Utoropy and unexpectedly discovered that this place had “salt in its history.” We drove to a part of the village locals call the “Ba- nia.” This is where natural brine bubbles up in Utoropy. For centuries it was boiled in the “banias” till the water evaporated and the salt could be gath ered. The salt industry was one of the oldest indus tries in Ukraine and for a long time it was one of the most important ones. It first emerged in this area, which for centuries was the main salt-producing re gion of medieval Ukraine. Today there are few traces of the famous Utoropy salt industry. The salt works had brought great riches to the various magnates and officials involved in the trade, but the Austrian gov ernment had a monopoly on salt. It closed the works in Utoropy in 1786 and they never reopened. How ever, to this day village people boil the local brine to get salt for home use. We each were given a cup of salt as a memento from Utoropy .8 In the 1800s, salt mines opened up in the Car pathian Mountains of Western Ukraine and the Do netsk Basin. For instance, in 1871, a salt mine opened 18 “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, БЕРЕЗЕНЬ 2003 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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