Maya Salt Works

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In Maya Salt Works, Heather McKillop details her archaeological team’s groundbreaking discovery of a unique and massive salt production complex submerged in a lagoon in southern Belize. Exploring the organization of production and trade at the Paynes Creek Salt Works, McKillop offers a fascinating new look at the role of salt in the ancient Maya economy.

McKillop maps over 4,042 wooden posts and wedges, the first known wooden structures preserved underwater from the Classic period, describing new methods of underwater archaeology developed specifically for this shallow maritime setting. She explains the technology of salt production, examining fragments of briquetage?the pots that boiled brine over fires in the kitchens. McKillop theorizes that different households operated different salt kitchens and distributed their goods via canoe to sell at marketplaces at nearby inland cities.

By evaluating the scale, concentration, intensity, and context of the Paynes Creek Salt Works, McKillop provides a model for interpreting existing salt works sites as well as future discoveries along the Yucatan Peninsula.

A volume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase.