NOT ironstone mining, steel-making, ship-building or chemical creation; the oldest known industry on Teesside is now salt-making. A spectacular discovery from around 3,800BC of the oldest salt-making site in western Europe has been reported in a prestigious academic journal by Dr Steve Sherlock, as the D&S Times told last week. It could change the way history looks at the way hunter-gatherers gave up their nomadic way of life about 6,000 years ago and settled down to become farmers; it could even change the way Teesside is perceived – previously its only known contribution to culinary history was the parmo, but now the very first Stone Age fine diners, the first gastronomes, could have been tucking into salt-flavoured beef dishes on the clifftops of North Yorkshire.