This discovery off the coast of Belize provides MAJOR context to how ancient Mayan communities functioned! 😱

Transcript

This is very exciting! Something amazing was found in the Paynes Creek National Park in southern Belize.

This discovery actually shows us multiple things about ancient Mayan civilization.

Archaeologists at Ta’ab Nuk Na found a grouping of underwater late Classic Mayan structures. These dated from 6th century CE. Archaeologists found not only large residential buildings, but three salt kitchens.

Archaeologists were able to see real-life Classical Mayan pole-and-thatch wooden buildings. That isn’t the only thing that’s super exciting. Salt kitchens were also found!

People would live and work at these salt kitchen sites and provide salt to inland communities. At this site, a wide variety of different pottery was found.

What peaked archaeologists interest most was a rare okarina, or a figurine whistle, that was found at this site. The fact that an okarina was found in this community shows that there was some trade going on with other nearby communities.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.