Subscribe to LSUWire
Send this to a friend
| Subscribe to LSUWire
|
|
Send this to a friend
|
| Wading through shallow waters off the southern coast of Belize, LSU Geography and Anthropology Associate Professor Heather McKillop and a group of graduate students and helpers peered intently at the lagoon floor. Using their hands to wave away silt kicked up by their movement, they were inching forward, shoulder-to-shoulder, when one of them noticed something odd emerging from the muck. After taking turns digging away the mud by hand, the group discovered the peculiar object was a long, wooden post, sharpened at the base. That was only the beginning, however. What they had found turned out to be part of the only known surviving wooden structures of ancient Maya civilization. Soon thereafter, they would come across a long wooden paddle, more than a thousand years old and neatly preserved by the "peat bog" at the bottom of the lagoon. Ultimately, McKillop and her group would find hundreds of other posts, providing solid evidence of Maya structures that were once large salt-producing facilities. McKillop has detailed her discoveries, as well as their importance and meaning, in a paper to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Indeed, her finds have sparked the interest of the scientific community and led to a grant of almost $25,000 from the National Geographic Society, which will allow her to begin mapping the wooden structures in Belize this summer. "The discovery is on the same level as the discovery of other Maya sites, such as Tikal in Guatemala or Chichen Itza in Mexico," said McKillop. "This marks a turning point in Maya studies, since never before have ancient Maya wooden buildings been discovered. We have a wealth of information on stone architecture – the temples, palaces and elite residences in ancient Maya cities, as well as the stone and earth foundations of the houses of the common Maya." McKillop added that the find "was totally unexpected." In her 25 years of previous research, she said, she had discovered many underwater sites that were submerged by rising seas, but had never before found wood preserved in a peat bog. In the tropical rainforest setting of most ancient Maya sites, wood structures are prone to decay. Indeed, she said, wooden objects have been recovered from only a few ancient Maya sites, in particular, those that had unusual environmental conditions, such as dry caves or dry temple rooms. Supported by funding from an LSU Faculty Research grant, McKillop, the William G. Haag Professor of Archaeology at LSU, was in Belize researching Maya salt production in the country's coastal region. She had previously discovered pieces of jars, bowls and other materials used for salt production in the general area of Punta Ycacos Lagoon, where the posts and paddle were found. She was attempting to determine if the salt-production activity on the Caribbean coast would have been sufficient to provide salt supplies for the massive Maya cities deep within the Yucatan Peninsula. The discovery of the new buildings and, in particular, the paddle, make it clear that the area was once a thriving zone of salt production that was largely swallowed up by rising seas during the last millennium. Initially, McKillop and her team had identified only four sites for salt production along the coast, but exploring beneath the water led to the discovery of 41 additional, submerged sites. Some 23 of these involve wooden structures. While researchers had previously suspected that the Maya had used canoes to move the salt produced along the coast to the interior cities, the paddle – which was radiocarbon dated to between 680-880 A.D. – represents the "first primary evidence of waterborne navigation of the ancient Maya," said McKillop. Indeed, images of Maya gods in canoes, holding paddles exactly like the one found by McKillop, have been found on carved bones in a temple of the Tikal Maya site. While previous research has examined the economies of Maya cities and households, the discovery of the major salt-production facilities and delivery system represents a "new type" of Maya economy to be studied, McKillop said. For her part, McKillop intends to begin mapping the underwater sites and continuing the search for other such sites this summer, with the help of the National Geographic Society grant. McKillop also recently received a grant from the Foundation for the Advancement of Mezoamerican Studies Inc., or FAMSI, that will support her research relating to the paddle. "I'm thrilled to be awarded grants from the National Geographic Society and FAMSI, which will allow us to begin mapping the wooden structures and to continue the search," said McKillop. "I expect we'll make more discoveries. Perhaps a canoe." For more information, contact McKillop at 225-578-6178 or hmckill@lsu.edu. –30– |
 |  |  |
|