The Nahuatl name of “Ixtapan” was given to various settlements which carried out activities related to the production of salt. Ixtapan means “the place where there is salt,” coming from the Nahuatl iztatl, which translates as salt. Hence words relating to salt come from the root iztatl. For example sea salt was called iztaxalli, the salt beds or places where salt was produced were called iztachihualoyan or iztaquixtiloyan, while specialists in salt production were given the title of iztachiuhqui or iztatlacatl. Salt sellers were known as iztanamacac, who traded loaves of salt called iztayaualli, which was ground up as iztapinolli or made into a solution as brine called iztayotl.

There was high consumption of salt in pre-Hispanic times, since it was used not just as a condiment, but also for preservation. It also featured as an ingredient in treatments for gum abscesses, molar pain, ear canal complaints, sore throats and coughs. Mixed with agave, it was applied to wounds to speed up healing. Salt and other salt products such as saltpeter and tequesquite were used to fix textile colors and for treating skin cuts.

The high demand for salt in pre-Hispanic times was met relatively easily because there was an abundance of the basic material which came from three types of sources: salt water lakes, inland springs and coastal estuaries. Consequently as a result of this great richness, salt production developed in numerous Mesoamerican settlements. Archeological investigations have uncovered signs of salt making activity as well as the remains of pre-Hispanic salt beds in the states of Puebla, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacan, Colima, Chiapas, Quintana Roo and Yucatan. San Miguel Ixtapan, Santa Isabel Ixtapan, Ixtapan de la Sal and Ixtapan del Oro in the State of Mexico, are a sample of the salt producing centers which began in pre-Hispanic times and lasted until the twentieth century.

In addition to archeological evidence there are eye-witness accounts from the sixteenth century chroniclers, including the friar Toribio de Benavente, known as Motolinia, who provided an account of the numerous products of New Spain. He was full of admiration for the salt providing springs and he wrote that “there are also sources of living salt, which must be seen because the white springs have a constant production of clear white accretions, which taken from the water and put into small lime-covered beds and exposed to the sun, shortly become salt (Benavente, 2001: 245). Fray Bernardino de Sahagún observed that the salt makers themselves sometimes sold the product, but that salt was also bought by others for resale. On the production process he states that the salt maker “gathers the salty earth and once it has been amassed it is washed very well and distilled or filtered in a basin, and it is shaped in various ways to make loaves of salt.” (Sahagún, 2001, vol. 2 p. 911). It is also known that salt was sold in the markets and there was a special spot for the sale of salt in Tlatelolco, which was famous for having the best variety of merchandise.

However not all salt was of the same quality. The salt produced on the shore of the Lake of Texcoco was very abundant thanks to the soil and the (saltpeter) encrustation which formed when the level of the lake fell. The process consisted of washing the soil to extract a concentrated solution of brine, which then had to be evaporated by drying in the air under the sun, but it could be cooked over a fire, and this latter method gave the highest quality results.

Salt was produced in the salt beds of San Miguel Ixtapan located in the vicinity of the archaeological site with the use of water from wells and a typical aspect of this salt bed was the use of a type of vessel known as a “poche,” an earthenware pot with a base from a layer of basalt and with turpentine on the sides, with a depth of approximately two inches, where the brine was poured for evaporation.

Salt production was more complex in other places such as Tonatico and Ixtapan de la Sal, in the State of Mexico. The primary material was obtained from springs and the water from these was distributed by a network of canals which carried the liquid to production plots. Once the earth was mixed with the water it was put through a filtration system to extract the brine and just as at other salt beds, it could be air dried under the sun or heated over a fire to improve the product.

It is evident that the salt produced in Tonatico and Ixtapan de la Sal was extraordinary because the tribute district in which covered these towns and was headed by Ocuilan, gave a tribute of 2,000 measures, or loaves of salt, twice a year. Page 34 of the Codex Mendoza has a note on tributes paid in salt, which mentions that the product was white and refined, for the exclusive use of the nobility of Tenochtitlan.

Salt was so important in the pre-Hispanic period that the religious thinking of the Nahua peoples ascribed its discovery to a divinity, the goddess Huixtocihuatl, the elder sister of the Tlaloc gods, who banished salt water after an argument. It is thought that salt making was discovered in this place, the salt makers worshiped her and honored her with a celebration in the month of Tecuilhuitontli, or the “lesser celebration of the lords.”