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Mural Painted More Than 2,500 Years Ago Depicts Salt as an Ancient Maya Commodity at a Marketplace [Mayan Salt Trade 500 BC]
Science Tech Daily ^ | March 23, 2021 | Louisiana State University

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 ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: calakmul; godsgravesglyphs; mayans; salt
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To: SunkenCiv

It appears they were well fed back then.


21 posted on 03/23/2021 5:38:56 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: a fool in paradise

They’re really just making margueritas.


22 posted on 03/23/2021 5:40:05 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Just think.....2500 years ago some guy tried to eat a cabbage with an ice cream scoop.


23 posted on 03/23/2021 5:58:57 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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To: SunkenCiv

I think she just snatched a whole chicken out of that guys hands.


24 posted on 03/23/2021 6:01:38 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: blueunicorn6

Well, the carton said “Cruciferous Vegetable flavor”.


25 posted on 03/23/2021 6:06:07 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: dragnet2

IOW, the Mayans invented take out long before the white devil slavemasters!!! /rimshot


26 posted on 03/23/2021 6:52:09 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I hate to be stupid, but how do we know salt is the good in the image?


27 posted on 03/24/2021 12:24:25 AM PDT by rdl6989 ( )
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To: Covenantor

#16. It might be baked salt cakes, depending on the consistency of the ocean salt.

I never found any salt around the Tikal, Peten Mayan site. Only lime, which could be used in cooking if it was of good quality.

Salt would be a good trading product for inland tribes but I doubt the really inner Yucatan tribes had access to it on a regular basis, Jungle trails are hard enough to walk on with just sandals or even boots. Carrying a lot of salt back scores or even hundreds of miles to the interior just doesn’t make any physical sense.


28 posted on 03/24/2021 1:20:19 AM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: SunkenCiv

Unattractive,fat woman in the marketplace.

Times have not changed much.


29 posted on 03/24/2021 5:55:08 AM PDT by Kevmo (The tree of liberty is thirsty.)
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To: rdl6989

Check your FReepmail.

The find is unsurprising, considering that all humans need at least some salt (with iodine) to remain in good health and for that matter, to survive. More is needed the hotter the climate.

Sidebar: during the colonial period the Euro militaries specified an hourly water ration for desert duty. Everyone had used that figure, including the locals after they regained sovereignty.

The Israelis studied it, found out it was one fourth the actual requirement, and that was one reason the IDF soldiers fought without running out of fight. Quite a number of the fleeing Egyptians during the 1967 retreat across Sinai, not surprisingly, died of thirst rather than enemy fire.


30 posted on 03/24/2021 8:09:09 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Mayans were fat?


31 posted on 03/24/2021 8:10:11 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: Fai Mao

Corn based diet = mucho fatso’s


32 posted on 03/24/2021 8:11:00 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: central_va

That’s why their civilization fell — and couldn’t get up. ;^)


33 posted on 03/24/2021 8:13:56 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Stone Temple Hoglets


34 posted on 03/24/2021 8:16:16 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: central_va

I think they’re driving the main road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jPApGpQy9c


35 posted on 03/24/2021 8:35:35 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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