By Bijal P. Trived National Geographic Today
Analysis of residue from a ceramic "teapot" suggests that the Maya, and their ancestors, may have been gobbling chocolate as far back as 2,600 years ago, pushing back the earliest evidence of cacao use more than 1,000 years.
July 17, 2002 gods," said Haas. In fact, the scientific name for the cacao tree is Theobroma cacao —"food of the gods."
Hieroglyphs that depict chocolate being poured for rulers and gods are present on Maya murals and ceramics.
"This reopens the whole debate about who first invented chocolate," said Jonathan Haas, curator of the mouthwatering "Chocolate" exhibition at the Field
Museum in Chicago.
Now the newly-analyzed spouted ceramic pot reveals the deeper darker history of this almost drug-like substance.
The first chemical evidence of cacao use came about
15 years ago after the analysis of residue from a vessel found at the Mayan site of Rio Azul in northeastern Guatemala and belonging to the Early
Classic period of Maya culture —approximately A.D.
460. But Michael Coe, co-author of The True History of
Chocolate, believes based on a slew of evidence, some linguistic, that the roots of chocolate go much further back to the great Olmec civilization, which preceded the Maya.
The Maya derived a lot of their high culture from the
Olmec," said Coe, also professor emeritus of anthropology at Yale. "Even the word 'cacao' is not a native Maya word —it's Olmec." The Olmec lived in the southern Gulf of Mexico between 1500 and 500 B.C., and their influence extended to Guatemala, Honduras,
Belize, Costa Rica, and El Salvador.
"The new find is hard chemical evidence that the
Mayans were drinking chocolate in 500 B.C.," said
Coe, suggesting that people were cultivating the cacao tree long before the Maya civilization, which flourished in southern Mexico, the Yucatán, and the highlands of
Belize between 500 B.C. and A.D. 1500.
Chocolate is made from the seeds of the cacao tree, which are swaddled in gooey white flesh inside greenyellow pods. The seeds and the pulp are scooped out of the pod and allowed to ferment until the seeds are a rich dark brown. The seeds are then dried, and then roasted before being ground to produce a thick chocolate paste.
Chocolate for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
The Maya had a lifestyle many kids would envy — chocolate at every meal. "It was the beverage of everyday people and also the food of the rulers and
Mayan teapots have always fascinated Terry Powis, an archaeologist at the University of Texas at Austin, which is how his investigation began. "Spouted vessels are very distinct from other Mayan ceramics and quite rare, typically associated with elite burials," he explained.
Fortunately for Powis, fourteen such vessels were excavated in 1981 from a site at Colha, which lies close to the Caribbean coast in northern Belize, and have since been housed at the University of Texas,
Austin. The Maya occupied Colha, which is known for its production of stone tools and its Preclassic spouted vessels, continuously from about 900 B.C. to A.D.
1300.
Chilli, Honey and Maize With Your Chocolate?
By the time the Spanish reached the Maya, around the
1500s, everyone was drinking chocolate —rich and poor alike. Traces of chocolate have been found in ordinary Maya houses.
Name: __________________________
1. Read the article and underline any dates.
2. Next circle words you are not sure of.
3. Write the letter next to where you find the answer in the text. a. Who do they think may have created chocolate? b. How was chocolate part of Mayan life? c. In what ways was chocolate part of the artistic expression? d. What countries are involved in the article?
4. Answer the following NRP question on the lined paper on the back.
What evidence does Bijal P. Trived, share about chocolate’s significance to Mesoamerican culture?