Salt and marine products in the Classic Maya economy from use-wear study of stone tools

Abstract

SignificanceThe Classic Maya (AD 300–900) technology of producing salt by boiling brine in pots over fires in wooden buildings at the Paynes Creek Salt Works, Belize, is consistent with this common and productive method elsewhere in the world in antiquity, historic, and modern times. We report the surprising results of a use-wear study of the edges of chert stone tools that indicates most were used for cutting fish or meat or scraping hides. Like the ancient Roman, Asian, and other civilizations, the Classic Maya evidently produced salt and salted fish—storable commodities for marketplace trade.

An Analysis of the Mineral Composition of Pink Salt Available in Australia

“…The availability of salt has been essential to civilization through its use as a flavor enhancer and as a preservative in food products [ 2 ]. Historically, salt was produced by boiling brine sourced from a variety of natural sources including seawater, wells, lakes, and salt springs, and it can also be found as rock salt in mines [ 3 , 4 ].…”

Demystifying jadeite: an underwater Maya discovery at Ek Way Nal, Belize

“…The use of jadeite as a utilitarian tool in a salt works indicates that even exotic materials, which often require expertise to fashion into tools, were selected for their hardness. Although the gouge was probably not employed in working wood or hard materials, it may have been used in other activities at the salt works, such as scraping salt, cutting and scraping fish or meat, or cleaning calabash gourds (see McKillop & Aoyama 2018). The jadeite tool may have been obtained by the salt workers travelling to regional marketplaces with their salt cakes and salted fish (McKillop 2019).…”

“…Salt cakes were a commodity traded at Maya marketplaces, as still practised today by modern salt makers in the Maya highlands and elsewhere (Reina & Monaghan 1981). Standard-sized salt cakes were traded both locally and regionally as currency equivalencies; they could be stored—along with salted fish—for later use, acting as a risk-management strategy to offset fluctuations in food availability (McKillop & Aoyama 2018; McKillop 2019). Marketplace trade of staple goods and resources made both locally and farther afield is documented at Maya cities, such as Caracol and Tikal, as well as in smaller communities (Sheets 2000; Masson & Freidel 2012; Chase et al .…”

“…The translucent appearance of the Ek Way Nal tool results from tightly woven grains in the material, which make the jadeite particularly durable and, therefore, even more desirable for use as a tool. At Ek Way Nal, salt workers probably obtained the jadeite gouge as part of a surplus household economy that related to the production and distribution of salt (McKillop 2019; McKillop & Aoyama 2018). The gouge, along with celts made from jadeite and other minerals found elsewhere at the site, formed part of this economy.…”

8 The “Othering” of Maya Political Economies

“…Household archaeology in the region has greatly revised this early view by demonstrating a varied array of diversified work pursuits at the residential group and community scales. Larger scale local specializations indicate community or polity-level emphases on opportunities to harvest, acquire, and manufacture goods desired by others, as observed at Colha Hester 1983, 1991), and at coastal sites (Andrews 1980(Andrews , 1983Andrews and Mock 2002;Kepecs 2003;Mock 1994;McKillop 1995McKillop , 1996McKillop , 2002McKillop and Aoyama 2018;Valdez and Mock 1991). More subtle (smaller scale) economic niches were also exploited, as in the Three Rivers Region (Scarborough and Valdez 2003), and rich agricultural zones in various parts of the Lowlands (Dunning et al 2002;Dunning, Beach, and Luzzadder-Beach 2012;Pyburn 2008).…”