In historic Maya civilization, cacao wasn’t only for the elites.
Traces of the sacred plant present up in ceramics from all forms of neighborhoods and dwellings in and round a former Maya metropolis, researchers report September 26 within the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discovering means that, opposite to earlier pondering, cacao was consumed at each social degree of Maya society.
“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 on the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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Cacao — which chocolate is produced from — was sacred to the traditional Maya, consumed in rituals and used as a forex. The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) itself was linked to Hun Hunahpu, the maize god. Previous analysis discovered cacao in ceremonial vessels and elite burials, suggesting that its use was restricted to these on the prime.
To discover the extent to which cacao was utilized in broader Maya society, Ford and colleagues examined 54 ceramic shards relationship from A.D. 600 to 900 (SN: 9/27/18). The shards come from jars, mixing bowls, serving plates and vases regarded as ingesting vessels. All the items had been present in residential and ceremonial civic areas of various dimension and standing from metropolis facilities, foothills, upland areas and the valley across the former Maya metropolis of El Pilar, on the present-day border of Guatemala and Belize.
To determine cacao, the researchers looked for theophylline, a compound present in hint quantities within the plant. The group discovered the compound on greater than half of the samples, on all forms of ceramics and distributed all through social contexts.
Future analysis will transfer past who consumed cacao and discover the function of farmers in managing the vital useful resource. “A better question is to understand who grew it,” Ford says, as a result of these individuals in all probability had better entry to the prized commodity.
