skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Household salt production by the Late Classic Maya: underwater excavations at Ta'ab Nuk Na
Salt is an essential commodity; archaeological remains around the world attest to the importance of its production, exchange and consumption. Often located in coastal locations, many production sites were submerged by rising seas, including the Paynes Creek Salt Works on the southern Belize coast. Survey and excavation of these sites has identified ‘kitchens’ for brine boiling, as well as Terminal Classic residential structures at Ek Way Nal. The authors report the discovery of an earlier residential building alongside salt kitchens at the nearby site of Ta'ab Nuk Na. This finding indicates that surplus household production began during the Late Classic, when demand for salt from inland cities was at its peak.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1826653
PAR ID:
10526527
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Publisher / Repository:
Cambridge University Press
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Antiquity
Volume:
96
Issue:
389
ISSN:
0003-598X
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1232 to 1250
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. (, Seven Millennia of Salt making)
    Plata, Alberto (Ed.)
    Survey and excavation of wooden buildings and associated briquetage at the Paynes Creek Salt Works indicate salt was produced by households in salt kitchens at sites that were submerged by sealevel rise. The sites are underwater in a salt-water lagoon system on the southern coast of Belize, Central America. The wood was preserved in red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) peat that provided an anaerobic matrix for building posts that were driven into the ground when the pole and thatch salt kitchens were built. Brine was increased in salinity by pouring it over salty soil in canoes, as evidenced by piles of discarded soil at the only two sites above water in the mangroves, as well as a wooden canoe. The brine was boiled in pots over fires in the salt kitchens. Salt cakes and salted fish were transported by canoe up nearby rivers to inland communities where salt was scarce. As salt cakes, they became commodities that could be stored, traded, or kept for subsequent transactions, as currency equivalencies. The implications for salt production in the Maya area during the Classic period civilization (A.D. 300-900) are discussed with reference to other salt works lacking wooden buildings. 
    more » « less
  2. ; (, Ancient Mesoamerica)
    Abstract Systematic flotation survey and spatial analysis of artifacts at the submerged salt work of Ek Way Nal reveal evidence of a residence, salt kitchens, and additional activities. Ek Way Nal is one of 110 salt works associated with a Late to Terminal Classic (A.D. 600–900) salt industry known as the Paynes Creek Salt Works. Wooden posts that form the walls of 10 buildings are remarkably preserved in a peat bog below the sea floor providing an opportunity to examine surface artifacts in relation to buildings. Numerous salt kitchens have been located at the Paynes Creek Salt Works by evidence of abundant briquetage—pottery associated with boiling brine over fires to make salt. As one of the largest salt works with 10 buildings, there is an opportunity to examine variability in building use. Systematic flotation survey over the site and flagging and mapping individual artifacts and posts provide evidence that the Ek Way Nal salt makers had a residence near the salt kitchens, along with evidence of salting fish for subsistence or surplus household production. The results are compared with ethnographic evidence from Sacapulas and other salt works. 
    more » « less
  3. ; (, Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology)
    Preservation of wooden building posts in red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) peat below the sea floor at the Paynes Creek Salt Works in southern Belize provides a rare opportunity to study pole and thatch buildings that were likely the dominant construction in the Maya area in prehistory. In 2020 and 2021, when field research at the salt works was not possible due to the covid pandemic, individual wooden buildings at two of the largest sites, Ek Way Nal and Ta’ab Nuk Na, were radiocarbon dated. The dates indicate that the buildings were constructed at different times. Associated artifacts reveal both residences and salt kitchens at both sites and that production began earlier at Ta’ab Nuk Na and ended later at Ek Way Nal. Identification of tree species used in building construction at Ek Way Nal indicates the salt workers selected useful trees and did not overuse the environment. 
    more » « less
  4. ; (, Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology)
    Chemical analysis of soils and sediments are useful for finding activities and defining space not readily apparent in the artifact assemblage due to varied preservation. In the Maya cultural area, chemical analysis of anthropogenic and naturogenic terrestrial soils and marine sediments have been used to find activities that occurred at ancient Maya sites both inside and outside of buildings. The Underwater Maya project has adapted soil chemistry, usually conducted at terrestrial sites, to the submerged Paynes Creek Salt Works. The acidic red mangrove peat has remarkably preserved wooden posts that form the outline of buildings and botanical remains but does not preserve bone or shell. The differential preservation at the salt works could obscure the full plethora of activities taking place, under shadowing the complexity of production of salt for the Late Classic Maya. In this paper, we discuss the importance of soil and sediment chemistry analysis in the Maya are, methods for sampling sediment at the Paynes Creek Salt Works, and the chemical signatures of human activity that are most likely to occur at the salt works. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; (, Ancient Mesoamerica)
    Abstract Survey teams at the El Pilar Archaeological Reserve for Maya Flora and Fauna have mapped 70 percent of its 20 km2area and revealed the extent of settlement around the city center. Large-scale civic architecture, and the distribution of smaller ceremonial groups and minor centers, reflect the wealth and power of Maya rulers presiding over the largest Classic period city in the upper Belize River area. Previous analyses suggest disparities in wealth at El Pilar were more nuanced than the elite/commoner dichotomy commonly invoked for Classic Maya society. This article works to understand wealth inequality at ancient El Pilar by computing Gini coefficients from areal and volumetric calculations of primary residential units—the class of settlement remains most likely to represent ancient households. Presentation of Gini coefficients and their potential interpretations follows a discussion of settlement classification and residential group labor investment. We conclude by contextualizing these results within prior settlement pattern analyses to explore how disparities in wealth may have been distributed across the physical and social landscape. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email