| Research at Wits Cah Ak'al (WCA), a heretofore unexcavated site near Belize City, Belize, has produced evidence of a salt extraction and pottery production industry in a non-residential setting. The artifact assemblage of the salt-production component bears strong resemblance to other salt production sites found along the Caribbean coast of Belize during the past two decades. Solid clay cylinders and other briquetage signify the use of a method of salt extraction commonly called sal cocida. Despite site utilization extending back conservatively to the Late Preclassic period (400 BC – AD 250), salt production is confined to Late/Terminal Classic periods (AD 600 – 950), a finding that concurs with production at other known salterns in Belize. Results of excavation and recording of briquetage reveal at least one in situ salt-boiling pit furnace that likely involved an array of seven pottery vessels.;During the Late Preclassic, pottery production took place at Wits Cah Ak'al. Excavation and artifact analyses satisfy multiple criteria for the identification of a pottery production locale; thus, WCA is one of the most firmly identified—and the first specialized—pottery production locales documented for the Maya lowlands.;Currently WCA is located in a mangrove landscape; pollen evidence presented here indicates that this landscape has considerable antiquity. This finding may explain why the site lacks evidence for residential occupation. On the other hand, the area is rich in organic and inorganic resources—such as clay, brine, chert, limestone, sand, and fuel wood—which may have attracted ancient Maya potters and salters to this distinctive landscape.;This research integrates multiple lines of evidence from archaeological survey, magnetometry, excavation, palynology, geomorphology, artifact analysis, replicative experiments, AMS dating, INAA, ICP-MS, thin section petrography, micromorphology, SEM, FTIR, and GIS. Furthermore, this study answers recent calls by archaeologists to consider the importance of all types of production (not just specialized production), to focus on producers and contexts in which production occurred, to explore the interaction of multiple crafting practices, and to generate much needed empirical data upon which better constructed theories of craft production may stand. |
