In ancient Maya civilization, cacao wasn’t just for the elites.
The sacred plant remains in trace Show up in ceramicsResearchers have reported that 26 September was the most popular day to collect data from neighborhoods and homes all over and around a former Maya City. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences. According to the findings, cacao was consumed at every level of Maya society, contrary to what we thought.
“Now we know that the rituals the elite depict with cacao were likely played out, like Thanksgiving, like any other ritual, by everyone,” says Anabel Ford, an archaeologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Cacao — which chocolate is made from — was sacred to the ancient Maya, consumed in rituals and used as a currency. The cacao treeTheobroma cacaoHun Hunahpu was the maize god. Research has shown that cacao was used in elite burials and ceremonial vessels, suggesting that it was only available to the very top.
To find out how cacao was used in everyday life broader Maya societyFord and coworkers examined 54 ceramic shards ranging in date from A.D. 600 to A.D. 900.SN: 9/27/18). The pieces are from serving plates, vases, and mixing bowls that were thought to be drinking vessels. All of the fragments were found in residential areas and ceremonial civic areas. They range from the city center, the foothills and upland areas to the valley around El Pilar (the former Maya capital of Guatemala), which is at the border between Belize and Belize.
To identify cacao the researchers looked for theophylline in the samples. This compound is found in trace amounts in the plant. The compound was found in more than half the samples. It was also found on all types and sizes of ceramics.
Future research will look beyond cacao consumption and examine the role of farmers in managing this precious resource. “A better question is to understand who grew it,” Ford says, because those people probably had greater access to the prized commodity.
