The ancient town may be that identified as Leufana or Leuphana (Greek: ???????), a town listed in Ptolemy (2.10) in the north of Germany on the west of the Elbe.
L�neburg was first mentioned in medieval records in a deed signed on 13 August, 956 AD, in which Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor granted "the tax from L�neburg to the monastery built there in honour of Saint Michael" (German den Zoll zu L�neburg an das zu Ehren des heiligen Michaels errichtete Kloster, Latin: teloneum ad Luniburc ad monasterium sancti Michahelis sub honore constructum). An older reference to the place in the Frankish imperial annals dated 795 states:...ad fluvium Albim pervenit ad locum, qui dicitur Hliuni i.e. on the river Elbe, at the location, which is called "Hliuni") and refers to one of the three core settlements of L�neburg; probably the castle on the Kalkburg which was the seat of the Billunger nobles from 951. The Elbe-Germanic name Hliuni corresponds to the Lombard word for "refuge site".
From archaeological finds, it is clear that the area around L�neburg had already been settled (in the museum of the Principality of L�neburg, for example, there is a whole range of artefacts that were found here) and the saltworks had already started production.
According to tradition, the salt was first discovered by a hunter who observed a wild boar bathing in a pool of water, shot and killed it, and hung the coat up to dry. When it was dry, he discovered white crystals in the bristles � salt. Later he returned to the site of the kill and located the salt pool, the first production of salt on the site took place. In the town hall is a bone preserved in a glass case; legend has it that this is the preserved leg-bone of the boar. It was here that the L�neburg Saltworks was subsequently established for many centuries.
In spite of its lucrative saltworks, L�neburg was originally subordinated to the town of Bardowick only a few miles to the north. Bardowick was older
