Posted on 03/23/2021 4:56:56 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The first documented record of salt as an ancient Maya commodity at a marketplace is depicted in a mural painted more than 2,500 years ago at Calakmul, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. In the mural that portrays daily life, a salt vendor shows what appears to be a salt cake wrapped in leaves to another person, who holds a large spoon over a basket, presumably of loose, granular salt. This is the earliest known record of salt being sold at a marketplace in the Maya region. Salt is a basic biological necessity and is also useful for preserving food. Salt also was valued in the Maya area because of its restricted distribution... She investigated hundreds of pieces of pottery including 449 rims of ceramic vessels used to make salt. Two of her graduate students were able to replicate the pottery on a 3D printer in McKillop's Digital Imaging Visualization in Archaeology lab at LSU based on scans taken in Belize at the study site. She discovered that the ceramic jars used to boil the brine were standardized in volume; thus, the salt producers were making standardized units of salt.
(Excerpt) Read more at scitechdaily.com ...
Thanks Red Badger for the link.
Why we have the word”salary”.
That is not a mural. A mural is an advertisement for criminal groups written in gigantic non cursive block letters on public property
That is not a mural. A mural is an advertisement for criminal groups written in gigantic non cursive block letters on public property
That’s beautiful work. Also that clothing the vendor has looks like something you could see on the street today.
That woman looks rather chubby. I thought only modern people were fat because of their diet.
Damn, were they carb loading even back then?
That's right; Roman soldiers sometimes took their pay in salt because it was a valuable commodity. It's also where we get the expression, "He's not worth his salt."
She’s been eating Mexican food...and possibly too much salt.
And probably the original use of the saying “you’re not worth your salt.”
/bingo
Salt and vinegar, some money, plus room and board, lots of hard work, free health care, occasional spoils, and (after the fall of the so-called Roman Republic) those who served out their enlistments got land. The book “The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean” discusses the Roman tax structure (obviously including import and export duties) and based on the documents which survive, a handful of the provinces more than paid for everything, while most provinces cost more to garrison and such than was generated in tax revenues.
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-Roman-Empire-and-the-Indian-Ocean-ePub/p/10061
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3944629/reply?c=9
On the other hand, it could be a sacrificial altar,........ if not a fertility rite.
The one on the right is Oprah.
If they had all this pottery as described why would a chunk of salt be wrapped in leaves? In a damp climate. Is there a glyph shown that denotes salt?
Because it looks like a pimp staring at his empty coke spoon wondering what his ho did with the money. She seems to be offering some cabbage. I known I’ve seen that woman before...on Oprah...Jerry Springer, or Geraldo maybe
Well, Orpah anyway.
Yeah, it has some ritual significance. /rimshot
Appears to be and presumably. I'd like a job where I could throw anything out to see what sticks.
The woman needs to cut back on her salt intake.
Who had the taffy franchise?
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