Desalinating Ceramics in the Field from the Underwater Maya Project

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.

This study reports on the desalination of pottery collected from seafloor mapping and underwater excavation from Site 8 in Paynes Creek National Park, Belize. Because the pottery was saturated with salt water, leaving it out without desalination results in the formation of salt crystals, which expand and crack the pottery. We selected samples from the thousands of salt-making artifacts and other diagnostic ceramics. The artifacts were soaked in bags and containers filled with fresh water with the timing based on lab studies at LSU. With the two-week desalination, all types of pottery were desalinated, including the fine volcanic ash-tempered Belize red and sand-tempered coarse Punta Ycacos briquetage/salt-making pottery. Each artifact was wrapped with labeled flagging tape while immersed in water to maintain provenience. Most artifacts were soaked in fresh water for two weeks, and then placed on trays in the sun to bake and dry out thoroughly. Although we 3D scanned the artifacts, desalinating them makes it possible to further study the actual artifacts in Belize in the future.

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): 52899