Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

Elemental Compositions of Suspected Salt Sources in Select Mayan Archaeological Settings

Salt played an important role in this ancient Mayan civilization. It was used for medicinal uses and cooking but would also form the salt into “salt cakes.” In addition, “…here is archaeological evidence of salt production on a scale to suggest that salt was a major export at each of these sources, it is difficult to reconstruct the movement of salt before the Spanish conquest.,” (Freiwald et al. 2019). A common salt cake from this region compacted salt and corn masa which also alters the taste of the salt. For this research, we are looking for potential salt sources and if there are any heavy elements in the brine. Two out of the six samples came from thermal springs while the other four came from cool springs. These areas are located more in the highlands of the region with igneous rocks deeper in the ground, overlaid with sedimentary rocks. In these select areas, we have mostly limestone. The Chiapas are one of the mountain ranges a few of our sample sites are located alongside of. For example, Ixtapa is in the lower part of the highlands in this area, so this area is “unconformably overlain by conglomerate, sand- stone and siltstones of the late Miocene Ixtapa Formation,” which the composition indicates an increase in detrital sediments, like reworked local Cretaceous limestone (Vergara et al. 2020).