Abstract
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.
Description
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Date of publication
10-2022
Language
english
Persistent identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/4157
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
McKillop, Heather and Sills, E. Cory, "Household salt production by the Late Classic Maya: underwater excavations at Ta'ab Nuk Na" (2022). Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations. Paper 1.
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/4157
Publisher Citation
McKillop, H., & Sills, E. (2022). Household salt production by the Late Classic Maya: Underwater excavations at Ta'ab Nuk Na. Antiquity, 96(389), 1232-1250. doi:10.15184/aqy.2022.106