Salt, and Salty Fish, Were An Important Part of the Maya Economy

D-brief
By Nathaniel Scharping
Oct 10, 2018 8:00 PMNov 20, 2019 1:36 AM
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(Credit: Natasha Breen/Shutterstock) If you lived among the ancient Maya, let's hope you liked your fish super salty.Archaeologists working at a former Maya salt mine near the coast in Belize say that they've found evidence of the fairly large-scale production of salted fish for trade at markets further inland. In the jungle, where seafood was a luxury and food wouldn't keep well, the salty fish could have been a valuable commodity.It's further evidence that producing and trading salt was an important part of the Maya economy, and another insight into the daily lives of an ancient jungle civilization.

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