A group of archaeologists has uncovered the oldest known ancient Maya salt production site in southern Belize.
A research team from LSU and the University of Texas at Tyler has revealed the earliest ancient Maya salt works in southern Belize, as detailed in the journal Antiquity. This initiative was spearheaded by LSU Alumni Professor Heather McKillop, who initially discovered wooden structures preserved beneath the sea floor along with relevant artifacts, including the only surviving ancient Maya wooden canoe paddle back in 2004.
Her primary collaborator, Assistant Professor Elizabeth Sills from the University of Texas at Tyler, started working with McKillop during her master’s program and later continued as a doctoral student at LSU.
After their first finding of wood under the sea floor in Belize, the team has identified many sites that feature “salt kitchens,” where seawater was boiled in pots over fire to produce salt, homes for salt workers, and remnants of other pole and thatch structures.
These sites have been remarkably well-preserved in red mangrove peat within the shallow coastal lagoons. Since 2004, the LSU research team has mapped up to 70 underwater locations, featuring 4,042 wooden posts outlining ancient buildings.
In 2023, they revisited Belize to excavate a site named Jay-yi Nah, which notably did not have the broken pottery typically found at other salt production sites, although a few pottery shards were discovered.
“These shards were similar to those from the nearby island site of Wild Cane Cay, which I had previously excavated,” McKillop noted. “I then proposed to Sills that we conduct another survey of Jay-yi Nah for posts and artifacts on the sea floor.”
Following their excavations, McKillop remained in a nearby town to analyze the artifacts from Jay-yi Nah. As mentioned in Antiquity, the materials they collected were different from those found at other local underwater locations, which contained imported pottery, obsidian, and high-quality chert or flint.
“Initially, this was confusing,” McKillop admitted. “However, a radiocarbon dating of a post we found at Jay-yi Nah indicated an Early Classic date of 250-600 AD, which clarified the situation.”
It was discovered that Jay-yi Nah is significantly older than the other underwater sites. Their research revealed that Jay-yi Nah functioned as a local operation, lacking the external trade links that emerged later during the Late Classic period (AD 650-800), when the population of inland Maya surged, creating a heightened need for salt—a vital resource that was scarce in landlocked cities.
Jay-yi Nah evolved from a minor salt production location, associated with the nearby community on Wild Cane Cay, which also produced salt during the Early Classic period. The presence of numerous fish bones preserved in oxygen-deprived layers at Wild Cane Cay indicates that some salt was likely produced there to preserve fish for future consumption or trade.
