In the hills of Transylvania and other parts of eastern Europe where salt massifs underlie the ground surface, brine springs well up in many places. Some of them are then formed into proper wells, where local people come and draw the brine to take home to preserve their foodstuffs, others just feed into streams that run downhill until they reach a larger river. In recent years these streams have been the focus of fieldwork designed to understand the processes of production and distribution of salt to communities ancient and modern, local and distant. In several places in Romania, sets of extraordinary wooden objects have been found, all concerned with salt production. The salt water has acted to prevent deterioration of the wood, though preservation of such large amounts of timber now presents its own problems. The paper will give an overview of the current situation in the countries of the Carpathian ring, and indicate what possible solutions are being considered.