Finds in Belize document Late Classic Maya salt making and canoe transport

Abstract

How did people in preIndustrial ancient civilizations produce and distribute bulk items, such as salt, needed for everyday use by their large urban populations? This report focuses on the ancient Maya who obtained quantities of salt at cities in the interior of the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala in an area where salt is scarce. I report the discovery of 41 Late Classic Maya saltworks ( anno Domini 600–900) in Punta Ycacos Lagoon on the south coast of Belize, including one with the first-known ancient Maya canoe paddle. The discoveries add important empirical information for evaluating the extent of surplus salt production and river transport during the height of Late Classic civilization in the southern Maya lowlands. The discovery of the saltworks indicates that there was extensive production and distribution of goods and resources outside the cities in the interior of the Yucatan. The discovery of a wooden canoe paddle from one of the Punta Ycacos saltworks, Ka'k' Naab', ties the production of salt to its inland transport by rivers and documents the importance of canoe trade between the coast and the interior during the Late Classic. Archaeological discovery of multiple saltworks on the Belizean coast represents surplus production of salt destined largely for the inland Peten Maya during their Late Classic peak, underscoring the importance of non-state-controlled workshop production in preIndustrial societies.

Kax and kol: Collapse and resilience in lowland Maya civilization

“…In some southern coastal plains areas, wetland agriculture also offered some security against agricultural drought, although the hydrology and chemistry of the wetlands was dynamic and challenging (17). Plains communities were also more closely and easily integrated into river and maritime trade networks, an advantage that was manifest in the growth of maritime trade in the Postclassic (62,64). Although social and political institutions collapsed on the plains, population declines were typically less severe.…”

“…A major hazard to settlements here is hurricane activity from the Caribbean and associated flooding (24). A number of ancient Maya settlements occupied the coastal fringe and the offshore islands and may have functioned as trade ports with inland cities (61,62). Some coastal sites such as Cerros were abandoned in the Terminal Preclassic, perhaps as the result of sea level rise or the collapse of trade routes (63), whereas other sites show greater longevity, including continuous occupation from the Classic into the Postclassic (61).…”

Human and natural impacts on fluvial and karst depressions of the Maya Lowlands

“…Studies from northern Belize estimate groundwater tables at about 1 m lower at 3000 BP, about 0.6 m lower by 2000 BP, and about 0.25 m lower by 1000 BP (High, 1975;Pohl et al, 1996;Toscano and Macintyre, 2003;Gischler and Hudson, 2004). Sea level rise also inundated some ancient Maya settlements, including Maya salt production sites by 1 m or more (McKillop, 2005). Some of this submergence of Maya sites is caused by the long-term subsidence of the carbonate platform, which Gischler and Hudson (2004) estimate as 39 to 119 mm ka -1 for the Belize shoreline.…”

Detection of chloride from pottery as a marker for salt: A new analytical method validated using simulated salt-making pottery and applied to Japanese ceramics

“…For this reason, large numbers of salt-making pottery vessels were manufactured, consumed, and disposed of, leaving middens composed of large quantities of heated pottery sherds of the same style. Ancient salt-production sites have been identified throughout the world by the presence of large quantities of homogeneous pottery sherds found in layers together with ashes (e.g., Alabi, 2000;Allen et al, 2007;Connah et al, 1990;Flad et al, 2005;McKillop, 2005;Olivier and Kovacik, 2006;Watanabe and Mori, 2003;Weller and Dumitroaia, 2005;Williams, 2002 and references therein). However, few studies have analyzed salt-making pottery scientifically to support these archaeological observations.…”