23 May 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Salt May Have Been Used as Money in Exchanges

Salt has always been a precious metal. Salt was needed in many areas, from the preservation of food to the taste of the food, to the feeding of animals, to its use in the field of health. Wars broke out for salt. Access to salt provided the advantage.

Described by Homer as a “sacred substance”, salt has also been used as a means of payment in shopping because it is a rare and troublesome product. Such that, In the Roman Empire, legionnaires’ salaries were made with salt. The English salary word “Salary” comes from salt money given to legions.

Salt gods stand out in North American culture. Many North American Indians are known to worship salt gods, often female. In America, salt was a very important product like other Asian and European countries.

Archaeologists discovered a striking 2500-year-old mural on the Mayan ruins in Calakmul, Yucatan, Mexico, depicting the salt exchange between buyers and sellers. This is the earliest record of salt as a commodity.

No wonder that salt played a major economic role in the ancient Maya as well. Archaeologists led by Heather McKillop of Louisiana State University recently documented an ancient Calakmul fresco in which a salt seller distributes salty dough wrapped in leaves to another person. The latter holding a large spoon over the basket.

Since 2004, Mckillop has uncovered a wealth of archaeological evidence relating to the salt trading networks of the ancient Maya. These include the remains of “salt kitchens”, buildings made of posts and straw that had been submerged and preserved in the saltwater lagoons of the mangrove forests of Belize.

Mayans, like the Romans, used salt as money.
Mayans, like the Romans, used salt as money.

Until today, Researchers have mapped 70 sites, including an extensive network of rooms and buildings called the Paynes Creek Salt Works.

This must have been an industrial-scale operation, as the archaeologists have identified 4,042 submerged architectural wooden posts, a canoe, an oar, a high-quality jadeite tool, stone tools used to salt fish and meat, and hundreds of pieces of pottery.

Alongside this recently described mural, this evidence suggests that salt cakes were transported in canoes along the coast and up rivers in southern Belize, the researchers wrote in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.

“I think the ancient Maya who worked here were producer-vendors and they would take the salt by canoe up the river. They were making large quantities of salt, much more than they needed for their immediate families. This was their living,” said McKillop in a statement.

Two of McKillop’s students even replicated some of the ancient Maya pottery using a 3d printer based on scans taken in Belize of some of the hundreds of pieces of pottery investigated at the site. This confirmed that the ceramic jars in which the Maya boiled the brine were standardized in volume.

“Produced as homogeneous units, salt may have been used as money in exchanges,” McKillop said.

Cover Photo: entrepreneur.com

Related Articles

A 2000-year-old Rare Artifact was Found Near Poltava

25 May 2021

25 May 2021

Scarab beetle pendant found near the Ukrainian city of Poltava. During the building of the H-31 motorway in the Poltava...

A Rare Late Neolithic Period Seal found in Domuztepe Mound

25 August 2022

25 August 2022

A rare Late Neolithic Seal was discovered during the 2022 excavations of the Domuztepe Mound (Domuztepe Höyük), located on the...

Women May Have Ruled El Algar in the Bronze Age

12 March 2021

12 March 2021

The diadem found in the Bronze Age tomb belonging to the El Algar culture may have belonged to a queen....

Excavations in Poland uncover Goth graves filled with ornate jewellery

17 August 2023

17 August 2023

A 2,000-year-old Goth burial site filled with ancient jewels has been discovered in Wda Landscape Park (Wdecki Park Krajobrazowy) near...

Rich Votive Deposit Discovered in the Valley of the Temples of Agrigento

10 August 2023

10 August 2023

At least sixty terracotta figurines, female protomes, and busts, oil lamps, and small vases, a rich votive deposit of bronze...

Extraordinary discovery in France: An unlooted 1800-year-old Roman Sarcophagus discovered

27 September 2023

27 September 2023

Archaeologists from France’s National Institute of Preventive Archeology (INRAP) have unearthed an unlooted ancient stone sarcophagus in the vast ancient...

Unexpected Origins of Mysterious Mummies Buried in Boats in a Chinese Desert

17 February 2024

17 February 2024

In 1990, hundreds of mummified bodies were found buried in boats in an inhospitable desert area in the Xinjiang Uyghur...

“Land of the Thousand Temples” Kancheepuram in India

20 May 2021

20 May 2021

Kancheepuram, one of the most sacred and religious Hindu pilgrim centers in India is also called the ‘Land of the...

A Fig Dating Back Over 2,000 Years has been Discovered in North Dublin – A First of Its Kind for Ireland

28 November 2024

28 November 2024

The discovery of a fig dating back 2,000 years during an archaeological excavation of Drumanagh in north Dublin, has been...

Military veterans uncovered ‘richest grave this year’ on final dig at Anglo-Saxon Cemetery

19 July 2023

19 July 2023

During excavations at an Anglo-Saxon cemetery on military training lands on Salisbury Plain, military veterans have unearthed the richest tomb...

The newly discovered fossils are 200,000 years old in Denisova Cave

29 November 2021

29 November 2021

Scientists have discovered the earliest remains of a human lineage known as the Denisovans. Researchers have identified stone artifacts connected...

Restored walls collapse in 1500-year-old Shahr-e Belqeys, concerns mount over further damage

12 May 2024

12 May 2024

Recently, a portion of the restored walls of 1500-year-old Shahr-e Belqeys (“City of Belqeys”), a historical city made of mudbricks...

Archaeologists Discovered 8th-century BC Settlement in Uzbekistan

25 June 2024

25 June 2024

A team of Chinese and Uzbek archaeologists discovered an ancient settlement dating back to the 8th century BC in Uzbekistan,...

“Operation Heritage” uncovers an artifact smuggling ring in Turkey

1 June 2022

1 June 2022

Turkish security forces searched locations in 38 regions on Tuesday in one of the largest operations against artifact smugglers, with...

The excavations in ancient city of Aizanoi discovered the statue heads of Dionysus and Aphrodite

11 December 2023

11 December 2023

The heads of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, and Dionysus, the god of wine, were found in Aizanoi,...