With funding from the National Science Foundation, an interdisciplinary team of researchers including Dr. Heather McKillop and colleagues Dr. Karen McKee and Dr. Harry Roberts from Louisiana State University, and Dr. Terance Winemiller of Auburn University Montgomery will carry out 3 seasons of archaeological fieldwork on the ancient Maya salt industry. They will excavate a site submerged by sea-level rise in a peat bog below the seafloor in Belize, where the peat has preserved wooden buildings and artifacts. Salt, a basic biological necessity for human life, is not available everywhere. In antiquity, hunting and gathering societies generally obtained enough salt from wild animal meat and plants, but with the rise of agriculture, permanent villages, and dense populations of cities, access to salt became a concern, when demand exceeded supply. Historically and prehistorically worldwide, salt has been collected from salt mining, solar evaporation, and brine boiling. At times, ancient states controlled the production and distribution of salt by assigning state administrators at salt works, or by levying a salt tax as in the Han Dynasty in China or among the Aztecs. Salt caravans traversed the desert in Africa, where salt and gold were equivalencies. The word 'salt' derives from the Roman Empire's use of salt as salary for soldiers. The researchers will investigate the infrastructure of ancient Maya salt production and the implications for supplying salt to the inland Maya Classic period cities where salt was arguably in short supply. The research will provide additional data on the timing and rate of actual sea-level rise and subsidence-- a sobering reminder of the impact of sea-level rise on coastal communities worldwide.

The researchers will use remote sensing in an automated vessel designed for shallow water to record the sea floor and search for buried remains. They will excavate wooden structures, areas of briquetage--pots used to boil brine over fires to make salt, and wooden structures used in concentrating the brine before the boiling process. They will excavate shallow sites using cofferdams and deeper sites by diving. Artifact conservation of artifacts will begin on site. They will reconstruct the ancient landscape with sediment coring across the lagoon system. The data will be integrated within a GIS, including 3D imaging and visualization.

Some of the broader impacts include training graduate students using GIS and other advanced technology, and bringing experts from different disciplines where the same issues are addressed separately. The research underscores the environmental changes that submerge coastal areas subject to modern development. The knowledge of the ancient salt industry and the wooden architecture will have a broader impact on education in schools in Belize, information available for archaeological tourism in Belize, and for understanding of the wooden architecture of the ancient Maya which surely formed the majority of buildings as it does in traditional modern Maya villages.

The intellectual merit of the research includes investigating ancient Maya wooden architecture, evaluating the Classic Maya salt industry, and explicating vegetation and sea level changes and their impact on people. The Paynes Creek wooden structures provide a key to documenting ancient wooden buildings, to evaluating analogies with modern structures, and for providing analogues for other ancient sites.

Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2010-08-15
Budget End
2013-07-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2010
Total Cost
$27,200
Indirect Cost
Name
Auburn University at Montgomery
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Montgomery
State
AL
Country
United States
Zip Code
36124