Digging to the Core: Sea-Level Rise at the Ek Way Nal salt works, Punta Ycacos Lagoon, Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Maritime Maya: Current Archaeology of Coastal Yucatan, Mexico, and Belize" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Excavations in 2022 were carried out at Ek Way Nal, a submerged ancient Maya salt works in Punta Ycacos Lagoon in southern Belize in order to extract a 1.7m-long sediment column for examining the relationship between the ancient Maya settlement at the site and sea-level rise during the Late and Terminal Classic periods (550-900 C.E.). Samples from the sediment column were analyzed using loss-on ignition (LOI), a process of burning sediment at high temperatures to assess its organic content. Selected samples were sorted using a microscope to determine the specific contents of the samples. The results of the LOI study indicate that the sediment is highly organic. Microscopic sorting indicates that the sediment is red mangrove peat. Red mangrove peat is a proxy for sea-level rise. The results of this study are compared with others from the Paynes Creek Salt Works to evaluate sea-level rise in Punta Ycacos Lagoon, as well as elsewhere in the Maya area. Mangrove sediment cores are useful in paleoenvironmental reconstructions when traditional methods (e.g. microfossil analyses) are not possible due to the highly acidic sediment.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• The Maritime Maya: Current Archaeology of Coastal Yucatan, Mexico, and Belize

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50523