Beyond the Shore: The Underwater Maya Project, Paynes Creek National Park, Belize.

A series of posters will illustrate recent work on the Paynes Creek Salt Works from the Underwater Maya Project, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University. This research is part of the larger long-term project in southern coastal Belize to further the understanding of how the coastal participated in the larger Classic and Postclassic Maya cultural sphere. The Classic period (A.D. 300-900) salt works were submerged by a sea-level rise that occurred after the Late Classic (A.D. 700-900). The salt works are associated with large-scale workshop production using the technique of evaporating brine in pots over fires, resulting briquetage – the broken salt-making pottery. Remnants of wooden structures used for production and storage of salt, were preserved in the anaerobic red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) peat below the sea floor. The posters will include an overview of the project and new directions for future research, dietary implications from a shell midden located at the Eleanor Betty Site, a comparison of the workshops between the Paynes Creek and Placencia Salt Works, and an overview of the stratigraphy of two earthen mounds.