Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Israeli media: For the first time, Prime Minister Netanyahu is signaling that he wants to end the war on Gaza
Israeli Channel 12, citing an American source: We want to have entered a path toward captive release and a ceasefire before Netanyahu arrives in Washington
Lebanese Ministry of Health: One martyr and two injured in the Israeli airstrike that targeted a motorcycle in the town of Mahrouna
Al Mayadeen correspondent to Southern Lebanon: An Israeli drone strike targeted a vehicle between the towns of Jwayya and Mahrouna.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in South Lebanon: One martyred in the Israeli drone strike on a car in the town of Kawnin
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in South Lebanon: Israeli drone targets a car in the town of Kawnin
Naeini: If our national interests are attacked again, our response this time will be stronger and more destructive
Naeini: The war has proven that the settlers are defenseless against Iranian missile and drone forces
Naeini: Trump lacks an understanding of the true strength of the Iranian people and is so deluded as to believe he can change the reality of Iran's victory
Naeini: The defeat led to Trump's confusion and loss of balance, which was reflected in his ill-considered statements

Rare Mayan architecture revealed under 1,500-year-old salt work

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: ARTnews
  • 8 Oct 2022 21:50
4 Min Read

Excavations uncovered the ruins of multiple buildings from the sixth century C.E.

  • x
  • Archaeologists conducting underwater excavations of Ta’ab Nuk Na (600-800 AD). Image Credit : Antiquity
    Archaeologists conducting underwater excavations of Ta’ab Nuk Na (Antiquity)

Archaeologists have discovered a rare cluster of submerged Mayan structures at Ta'ab Nuk Na, the main salt works site in Paynes Creek National Park in southern Belize. Their findings, published today in the journal Antiquity, reveal enormous residential complexes, as well as three salt cookers submerged in the coastal lagoon.

“[We found] hundreds of wooden posts that define the walls of Classic Maya ‘pole and thatch’ wooden buildings,” E. Cory Sills, a co-author of the study, said in a statement. “Since wood normally decays in the tropical landscape of the Maya area, the wooden buildings provide a rare view of the architecture that once dominated most ancient Maya communities.”

Excavations uncovered the ruins of several buildings from the Late Classic Maya civilization dating back to the 6th century C.E., including salt cookers and a large residence built around 650 C.E. Over 600 flags identified the sites of key objects uncovered on the lagoon floor by underwater archaeologists. The flags were then digitally mapped.

“Mapping individual artifacts on the sea floor allowed us to see their distribution in relation to the 10 pole-and-thatch wooden buildings and to reconstruct the activities in the different buildings,” said co-author Heather McKillop in a statement.

Not only did the Maya "work from home" by manufacturing salt in their garden, but they also engaged in household chores such as fishing, food preparation and cooking, woodworking, and cotton spinning.

The home dwellers would have manufactured salt for themselves before trading the surplus with other communities, according to academics. Salt was a scarce commodity inland, where Maya civilizations were thriving, and the majority of those places were supplied by salt mills located along the shore. Ta'ab Nuk Na and other places in the lagoon may have given enough salt for 24,000 people.

McKillop described the discovery as "startling" in an email to ARTnews, saying the structures are the only ancient Maya timber buildings that have survived to this day, as opposed to the more usual stone temples and palaces of the wealthy Maya found in city centers.

“Ta’ab Nuk Na had 10 wooden pole-and-thatch structures known from the 500+ wooden posts that had been driven into the ground, which was highly-organic mangrove peat,” she explained. “The workers lived on site, which shows it was a ‘cottage industry’, featuring families producing more than their needs [and supplying salt for] the nearby inland Maya.”

Workers traded the salt surplus for other commodities found at the site, including as pottery and stone tools. A variety of pottery was discovered, as well as a rare ocarina—or figurine whistle—depicting a woman. “The ocarina from Ta’ab Nuk Na is a rare discovery at the site,” added McKillop. The instrument has “a woman on the front with a sound chamber on the back [and] a mouthpiece and two holes so it can be played.”

Lubaantun, an inland city, had numerous such ocarinas, as well as molds for creating them, and a modern community whose citizens required salt, making them a logical trading partner.

A ceramic spindle whorl, used to spin cotton for fishing nets or garments, was also discovered, as well as cohune nuts, candeleros (little incense burners), a small wooden paddle for stirring pots of food, and tools for whittling wood, grinding maize, and processing fish and meat. There was also a figurine and a miniature canoe with four suspension holes that could have been children's toys.

Belize Red, a service ware brought from the upper Belize Valley, was included in the ceramic collection, along with Warrie Red, imprinted jars, vases, orange-slipped bowls, and a red-slipped tobacco pot. A clay funnel, which researchers assume was used to concentrate the saltiness of the brine, was also discovered at the site, as kitchens employed the "brine boiling" method to evaporate saltwater over the fire.

Ta'ab Nuk Na's salt manufacture appears to have ceased around 800 C.E., during the Terminal Classic era, when another salt kitchen in Paynes Creek, known as Ek Way Nal, took over.

“Our research at Ta’ab Nuk Na provides a model for other salt production sites along the coast of Belize and the Yucatan [where] they likely also had wooden buildings, making them a more tangible and permanent part of the landscape in antiquity,” McKillop said.

  • Mayan architecture
  • Belize

Most Read

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends a protest following the US attacks on nuclear sites in Iran, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP)

Iran declares victory as ceasefire forces Israeli retreat

  • Politics
  • 24 Jun 2025
Israeli workers survey the site where a missile launched from Iran struck in Haifa on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP)

True Promise 3, wave 20: 40 missiles launched, Kheibar-Shekan in first

  • Politics
  • 22 Jun 2025
Iran launches strikes on Israeli targets, despite alleged ceasefire

Iran victorious as ceasefire with 'Israel' takes effect

  • Politics
  • 24 Jun 2025
Iranian worshippers carry their country's flags in a protest to condemn Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, after the Friday prayers ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 20, 2025. (AP)

Iran warns of NPT withdrawal, Strait of Hormuz closure after US attack

  • Politics
  • 22 Jun 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

Read Next

All
In this June, 12, 2021, file photo, former Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani sits in a meeting in Tehran, Iran.
Politics

Iran strategically foiled Israeli-US scheme, Advisor Shamkhani says

Sheikh Naim
MENA

Let no one think they can subjugate Hezbollah: Sheikh Qassem

Screengrab from a video published by the al-Qassam Brigades shows confrontations with the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza, undated (Al-Qassam Brigades Military Media)
Politics

Al-Qassam releases video of deadly ambush with Israeli forces in Gaza

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General, Rafael Grossi, attends an IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Austria, Monday, June 23, 2025 (AP)
Politics

Iran bars IAEA chief Grossi from nuclear facility inspections

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS