Recent excavations of submerse Maya salt kitchens off the coast of Belize indicate that their ancient doer live on the sites and possibly work in kin - based squad .
The archeological web site is call Ta’ab Nuk Na , and it was in procedure from 600 atomic number 58 to 800 CE . It ’s the with child of 110 submerged Maya sites in Paynes Creek , a nature reserve on Belize ’s southerly coast . archeological analysis of the operations at Ta’ab Nuk Na arepublishedtoday in the daybook Antiquity .
“ The discovery of a residence at the site indicates the table salt workers were living there instead of commuting day by day from somewhere else on the coast or proceed to the coast seasonally from inland area , ” said Heather McKillop , an archaeologist at Louisiana State University and the written report ’s lead author , in an email to Gizmodo .
Flags marking the sites of posts and other artifacts from the 1,200-year-old salt kitchen.Photo: McKillop et al., Antiquity 2022
The Maya mainly produce salt in two way : evaporating saltwater and boiling brine in briquetage , or coarse ceramic watercraft , over ardor . The 2d method was deploy comprehensively at Ta’ab Nuk Na , according to the team ’s analysis . Saltmay have been usedas a form of currentness by the Maya and was significant for preserving fish and other heart and as an element in preparation .
The inquiry team determine evidence of a residential construction and three salinity kitchens tie in with the structure in the shallow water off the coast . The web site lies in a forest ofred mangroves , saltiness - broad Tree that thrive on the coastal shores of Central America .
The mangrove peat is anaerobiotic , meaning there ’s very little oxygen . That has leave the C - honest-to-goodness wooden posts and craft made by the Maya populations of Ta’ab Nuk Na to survive underwater for hundred .
The headless ocarina in the shape of a human.Photo: McKillop et al., Antiquity 2022
Among the squad ’s recent finds were building Charles William Post , ceramic remains , notched forest , a ceramic spinning whorl , a possible sportfishing weight , a framework boat , and a component part of an sweet potato in the shape of a man .
Excavated artefact were kept in bag of water to keep them from drying out and decaying . Though the excavations take spot in shallow body of water , the squad used flotation machine to forefend touching the seafloor and peril damaging the site . Objects of interest were mark with flags poking out of the water .
“ The Late Classic Maya incorporated common salt yield as the nidus of their saving and relied on trading with others to hold many other day-to-day goods , ” McKillop said . “ The Ta’ab ’ Nuk Na table salt makers yield with corn and other nutrient as well as the minority of pottery we find that is not local . ”
More salt was produced at Ta’ab Nuk Na than was needed for the worker there ; the squad believe the nimiety was regionally traded , perhaps to residential district farther inland .
base on the production at innovative salt act upon at Sacapulas in Guatemala , the squad believes that 10 table salt kitchens in the Paynes Creek field could have raise 60 heaps of salt over the row of the four - month dry season in the field . However , it ’s not certain how many of the Paynes Creek sites ( 110 in amount ) were at the same time operated during the Late Classic period .
presently , the team will turn up smaller sites near Ta’ab Nuk Na to intimately empathise the scale of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks production in the area . A clayware paddle find at one site paint a picture it may be where the briquetage pottery was made .
The situation emphasise what was already get it on : Maya society was expansive and had complex trade route connected different Maya communities across Mesoamerica . However , it also emphasizes the scurf of salt product in Belize and indicates that the tasty mineral may have been ship in majority along those trade routes .
More : Stunning Inland Mangrove Forest Is a ‘ Lost World ’
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