Cocoa with the Maya: A drink for everyone

The cacao tree (

) originally comes from rainforests in the Amazon region.

Interest in the hard-skinned fruits, which grow on short stalks directly on the tree trunk, was probably initially aroused by the deliciously sweet flesh.

The culinary potential of the seeds hidden inside, called cocoa beans, was apparently discovered much later.

Namely, only after cocoa trees had reached Central America as useful plants.

Spanish conquerors report of a frothy whipped drink that was served there at stately receptions.

Relevant texts and images show that such a product made from cocoa beans was held in high esteem even in the classical Maya culture.

Artfully painted ceramics from the late Classic period from 600 to 900 AD, for example, sometimes depict the consumption of frothy cocoa in an elitist context.

In the meantime, chemical traces of cocoa beans have also been detected in the shards of luxurious drinking vessels.

All these sources led to the conclusion that it appeared to have been a particularly prestigious luxury item, reserved for the powerful of Maya society.

Anabel Ford, Ann Williams and Mattanjah S. de Vries from the University of California in Santa Barbara have now discovered that cocoa was not only reserved for the highest circles.

In contrast to earlier studies, the researchers did not concentrate on pottery from the vicinity of temples and palaces, but primarily examined vessels from less privileged residential areas.

The cocoa treasures of El Pilar

As the researchers around Ford report in the "Proceedings" of the American National Academy of Sciences, theophylline served them in addition to caffeine and theobromine as evidence of cocoa.

Because at the time in question, the cocoa tree was the only plant in the settlement area of ​​the Maya that produced theophylline.

The two other, very similar alkaloids can also be found there in other plant species.

All of the pottery shards examined for chemical traces of infiltrated cocoa came from around the El Pilar archaeological site in the border region of Belize and Guatemala.

Over the course of centuries, the Maya had once built an imposing city there, surrounded by smaller settlements and extensive agricultural areas.

In order to be sure that the archaeological finds were free of chemical substances that had only gotten there during salvage and storage, the surface of the examined pottery shards was first carefully ground down.

Only then was a material sample ground into a fine powder.

Finally, extracts of the organic substances contained therein were analyzed by mass spectrometry.

The researchers were able to detect theophylline in 18 of 54 ceramic samples examined.

Amazingly not only in drinking vessels but also in bowls for mixing food and drink, in storage vessels and on plates for serving food.

This suggests that the Maya did not only consume cocoa as a drink.

What else Mayan cooks did with it may be depicted on some drinking vessels.

Such images show plates of filled dumplings decorated with a dark icing.

It is possible that these specialties, known as tamales – still popular in Central America today – were once served with a cocoa sauce on special occasions.

The enjoyment of cocoa was not commonplace

One edge of the plate with traces of cocoa comes from a small urban powerhouse, another from a small settlement in a sparsely populated rural region.

The rest of the pottery, which shows chemical traces of cacao, was also recovered from a wide variety of landscapes and settlements, some from ruins and some from waste pits.

This widespread distribution suggests that all social classes of the Mayan culture were once able to enjoy cocoa.

According to Ford and her colleagues, this in no way contradicts a high regard for this food, which has been described as the "food of the gods".

While products made from cocoa beans are now a completely normal commodity, readily available as sweets in large quantities and in many variations, they were certainly not commonplace in classical Mayan culture.

Nevertheless, elaborately prepared cocoa was apparently not reserved for the powerful.

Instead, it is likely to have been granted to a large part of the population at high festivals and important rituals.

This participation may have played an important role in holding together the far from egalitarian Maya society of the Late Classic.