Snail Shells and Maize Preparation: A Lacandon Maya Analogy
- 1 July 1979
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in American Antiquity
- Vol. 44 (3), 568-571
- https://doi.org/10.2307/279555
Abstract
A recent report by Moholy-Nagy (1978) notes the frequency and wide distribution of the freshwater snails Pomacea flagellata and Pachychilus spp. in archaeological sites of the southern Maya Lowlands. The report suggests that these snails served as supplementary sources of protein. In this comment, the author describes the modern Lacandon Maya use of Pachychilus shells as lime for processing maize into tortillas and corn gruels and proposes that snail shells may also have served the ancient Maya as a source of lime.Keywords
This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
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- Traditional Maize Processing Techniques in the New WorldScience, 1974
- The archaeological use and distribution of Mollusca in the Maya lowlandsPublished by Smithsonian Institution ,1969
- Lime-Heat Effects on Corn Nutrients, Effect of Lime Treatment on in Vitro Availability of Essential Amino Acids and Solubility of Protein Fractions in CornJournal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 1958
- Copan Ceramics, a Study of Southeastern Maya PotteryAmerican Journal of Archaeology, 1955