Heather McKillop
Thomas & Lillian Landrum Alumni Professor Louisiana State University
- Baton Rouge LA
Dr. McKillop is an archaeologist, academic, and Maya scholar, noted particularly for her research into ancient Maya coastal trade routes.
Areas of Expertise
Biography
Heather McKillop earned a Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts in Anthropology from Trent University, located in Peterborough, Ontario. She received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California in Santa Barbara, California.
Heather McKillop has carried out archaeological fieldwork along the coast, on the cays, and underwater in Belize since 1979.
Since the 2004 discovery of ancient Maya wooden architecture and a wooden canoe paddle preserved in a peat bog below the sea floor, McKillop and her team of Louisiana State University (LSU) students and colleagues have been focused on the discovery, mapping, excavation, sediment coring and analyses of the waterlogged remains. She started the DIVA Lab (Digital Imaging and Visualization in Archaeology) in 2008 to make 3D digital images of the waterlogged wood, pottery, and other artifacts from the underwater Maya sites—Paynes Creek Salt Works. As of 2016 McKillop is Thomas and Lillian Landrum Alumni Professor in the Department of Geography and Anthropology at LSU.
Research Focus
Maya Coastal Trade & Underwater Archaeology
Dr. McKillop carries out archaeological field research on ancient Maya salt works flooded by sea-level rise and uses 3D technology to preserve a record of the salt-waterlogged pottery and wood. She started the DIVA Lab (Digital Imaging and Visualization in Archaeology) in 2010 and has expanded 3D imaging and 3D printing, including exhibits featuring 3D printed replicas of artifacts from the Underwater Maya project.
Education
University of California-Santa Barbara
Ph.D.
1987
Trent University
M.A.
Anthropology
Trent University
B.Sc.
Anthropology
Accomplishments
Distinguished Alumni Award, Trent University
2024
Media Appearances
An LSU professor's study of waterlogged posts causes worldwide stir in archaeological circles
The Advocate online
2024-12-11
But in 2023, the LSU archaeologist and her crew not only resurrected the story of a Maya salt works site, but what is thought to be the culture's oldest known salt works operation.
"This post is 1,200 years old," McKillop said.
Who built the LSU campus mounds provides insight into these prehistoric treasures
EurekAlert! online
2022-11-30
“We know a lot about what people were doing in the North American Middle Archaic period and their lifestyle,” said Heather McKillop, the Thomas & Lillian Landrum Alumni Professor in the LSU Department of Geography & Anthropology and co-author on the paper published in SAA, the Magazine of the Society for American Archeology. “It’s very exciting that we have these earthen mounds preserved here at LSU. As we study them, we need to tie the mounds to the people who built them.”
LSU anthropologist Heather McKillop dives into new Maya discoveries
inRegister online
2019-08-03
This May, Heather McKillop, an expert in ancient Maya anthropology and the Thomas and Lillian Landrum Alumni Professor in the Department of Geography and Anthropology at LSU, returned from an unusual excavation in Belize with some remarkably rare evidence of this long-lost segment of history. Just below the surface of the lagoons of Ek Way Nal, preserved in the dense peat of its mangrove forest, McKillop and her team discovered more than 150 wood posts and several artifacts belonging to an ancient Maya “salt kitchen,” a community tasked with boiling brine and extracting salt—a major commodity at the time—to send north to landlocked cities. Expanding on her previous discoveries related to long-distance and coastal trade routes as detailed in her most recent book, Maya Salt Works, McKillop’s team also discovered a rare Maya tool made of rosewood and jadeite, a blue-green beauty that attracted the attention of multiple news outlets.
Articles
Earliest Ancient Maya salt production in southern Belize: excavations at Jay-yi Nah
Antiquity2025
Salt works along the Yucatan coasts of Mexico and Belize provide a record of salt production for inland trade during the height of Late Classic Maya civilisation (AD 550–800). At the Paynes Creek Salt Works in Belize, production focused on the creation of salt cakes by boiling brine in pots supported over fires in dedicated salt kitchens. Underwater excavations at the Early Classic (AD 250–550) site of Jay-yi Nah now indicate there was a longer and evolving tradition of salt making in the area, one that initially employed large, incurved bowls to meet local or down-the-line trade needs before inland demand for salt soared.
Flooded mangrove landscapes hide ancient Maya coastal sites in Belize
Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology2024
Evidence of ancient Maya exploitation of salt, other marine resources, settlement, and sea trade is hidden in flooded mangrove landscapes on the cays, mainland, and in shallow offshore locations on the south coast of Belize. This article includes a discussion of the coastal economy from the Middle Preclassic through the Postclassic periods (600 B.C.–A.D. 1500). Data from sites discovered and excavated since 1982 in the coastal area of the Port Honduras and Paynes Creek National Park support a model of coastal reliance on marine resources and tree crops. The need for a regular supply of coastal salt to inland cities may have expanded the market for other marine resources. Obsidian imported from volcanic highlands documents long-distance trade throughout prehistory in the area. The island of Wild Cane Cay expanded its role in long-distance coastal trade after the abandonment of inland cities in southern Belize at the end of the Classic period. Inundation of the region documented from the depths of radiocarbon-dated archaeological deposits below the water table and from a sediment core indicates sea-level rise of at least 1 m that submerged the coastal sites. The waterlogged deposits provided an ideal matrix for preservation of vertebrate material at Wild Cane Cay. The red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) peat below the sea floor in a shallow lagoon preserved wooden buildings.
Human–environment interactions at Ta'ab Nuk Na, a submerged Maya salt works site in Belize
Ancient Mesoamerica2024
Sea-level rise and settlement are investigated at Ta'ab Nuk Na, an ancient Maya salt works in Belize, by examining samples from wooden posts and marine sediment. The samples included Post 145 of Building B and the Nunavut beam, along with marine sediment columns cut from beside both wooden posts. The sediment columns were sampled at 2 cm intervals. Loss-on ignition confirmed the presence of organic material. Identifying the organic content involved removing nonorganic material from the sediment and sorting the organic material under magnification. This procedure established that most of the organic material was red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle). Red mangroves tolerate salt water, but under conditions of sea-level rise, the plants grow vertically to keep their leaves above water. Sediment, leaves, and detritus trapped in the prop roots form mangrove peat, which serves as a proxy for sea-level rise. AMS dating of fine red mangrove roots determined that the local sea levels rose at Ta'ab Nuk Na throughout the Late Classic period and continued into the Postclassic period. Radiocarbon dates obtained from the wood-post samples yielded Late Classic–period dates. Comparing the radiocarbon dates from the wooden posts and the sediment core samples determined that the site was abandoned before the rising seas flooded the area. Evidently, sea-level rise did not play a role in site abandonment.
Briquetage and Brine: Living and Working at the Classic Maya Salt Works of Ek Way Nal, Belize
Briquetage and Brine: Living and Working at the Classic Maya Salt Works of Ek Way Nal, Belize2023
Systematic flotation survey and spatial analysis of artifacts at the submerged salt work of Ek Way Nal reveal evidence of a residence, salt kitchens, and additional activities. Ek Way Nal is one of 110 salt works associated with a Late to Terminal Classic (A.D. 600–900) salt industry known as the Paynes Creek Salt Works. Wooden posts that form the walls of 10 buildings are remarkably preserved in a peat bog below the sea floor providing an opportunity to examine surface artifacts in relation to buildings. Numerous salt kitchens have been located at the Paynes Creek Salt Works by evidence of abundant briquetage—pottery associated with boiling brine over fires to make salt. As one of the largest salt works with 10 buildings, there is an opportunity to examine variability in building use. Systematic flotation survey over the site and flagging and mapping individual artifacts and posts provide evidence that the Ek Way Nal salt makers had a residence near the salt kitchens, along with evidence of salting fish for subsistence or surplus household production. The results are compared with ethnographic evidence from Sacapulas and other salt works.
Household salt production by the Late Classic Maya: underwater excavations at Ta'ab Nuk Na
Ancient Mesoamerica2023
Salt is an essential commodity; archaeological remains around the world attest to the importance of its production, exchange and consumption. Often located in coastal locations, many production sites were submerged by rising seas, including the Paynes Creek Salt Works on the southern Belize coast. Survey and excavation of these sites has identified ‘kitchens’ for brine boiling, as well as Terminal Classic residential structures at Ek Way Nal. The authors report the discovery of an earlier residential building alongside salt kitchens at the nearby site of Ta'ab Nuk Na. This finding indicates that surplus household production began during the Late Classic, when demand for salt from inland cities was at its peak.
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