Analysis of Marine Sediment by Chemical Signatures to Discover Evidence of Ancient Maya Activities at Site 74, Paynes Creek Salt Works, Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This poster examines multi-element chemical analysis on sediment at the underwater Site 74 in Paynes Creek Salt Works, Belize. Site 74 was once an ancient Maya salt work. Due to sea-level rise, sea water and mangrove peat now cover the site. Sediment from the site was exported under permit to the Louisiana State University Laboratory for inductively coupled plasma- atomic emission spectroscopy testing (ICP-AES). ICP-AES measured the amount of 20 elements in the sediment. Maps showing variation in the elemental concentrations across the site were made. The study of rapidly-abandoned sites as well as ethnohistorical and ethnoarchaeological theory and methodologies were used to interpret the results. These tests were used to investigate how Site 74 was used, what activities took place, how the buildings were constructed and the spatial layout of the saltwork. This research builds towards a larger investigation of structure and usage of ancient Maya Salt Works in coastal Belize.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24654