When did man begin consuming salt?

 Salt was unknown in America and India before the Europeans introduced it. Man started using salt when he gave up his nomadic way of life and started agriculture. The word salary comes from salt, for the Romans used to give an allowance of money for salt to the officers and soldiers of the Roman army. In some parts of central Africa, salt is still a luxury and only rich people can afford it. Salt has symbolic meanings too as expressed in phrases like, “bread and salt” and “a covenant of salt”.