Cacao Use in Classic Maya SocietyElla Noyes, Keene State College

Advisors: Dr. W. James Stemp and Dr. Stephen Lucey

Abstract

References

This project will examine the creation and use of chocolate in Classic Period (250-900CE) Maya society. The Maya were a Mesoamerican cultural group who controlled parts of Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, and other areas of Mexico. The Classic Period Maya elites used cacao as a beverage in socio-political ceremonies. Chocolate began, and has remained, an important symbolic and metaphorical object in the Maya belief system. We have learned that cacao is an esteemed beverage for the Maya through artifacts, iconography, hieroglyphic texts, and chemical analysis of ceramics found in a Maya setting. Understanding the use of cacao in the Classic Period can help us understand its importance in the modern world.

The Maya

The Maya are a cultural group who lived in Mesoamerica from 1,000BCE-1521CE. Much of Maya society was recorded by Spaniards, including Bishop Diego de Landa, but was translated into non-Mayan terms so that western Europeans could make sense of the society they were conquering. Maya politics and history can be deciphered through the glyphs they left behind on their ceramics and stelae. The Maya didn’t use an alphabetic system like we do, but used logograms and syllable combinations in order to form words using the glyphs (Kettunen and Helmke 2008, Coe 2012).

Map of Cacao Producing Regions in Maya Worldhttp://myweb.rollins.edu/jsiry/map-cacao.jpg

Cacao has a unique chemical composition that makes it less difficult than other compounds to identify in the archaeological record. The identifying alkaloids in cacao are caffeine and theobromine, which are native to Mesoamerica only in cacao trees. Theophylline is also present, but isn’t as strong of an indicator.http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/x/alkaloids-caffeine-theobromine-theophylline-23518760.jpg

Chemistry of Cacao

Although the Classic Period ranges from 250CE until roughly 900CE, most Classic Maya ceramics that are studied come from 500CE-800CE because there was an increased production of ceramics throughout the Maya area (Grivetti 2009: 3). The Maya had over twenty vessel types, but the most common vessel types for cacao beverages were cylindrical vases, tripod containers, and spouted vessels (Helmke and Kettunen 2008: 20). http://blog.hmns.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/pottery-2.jpghttp://blog.hmns.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/pottery.jpg

Ceramics

Coe, Michael D. Breaking the Maya Code. 3rd Ed. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2012. Grivetti, Louis and Howard-Yana Shapiro. Chocolate: History, Heritage, and Culture. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons, 2009

Kettunen, Harri and Helmke, Christophe. “Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs: Workshop Handbook.” Lexington: unknown, 2008.

The cacao glyph can also be seen on vessels to show tribute payments or inventoried amounts of cacao rulers possessed (Grivetti 2009: 3). The vessel from the Denver Art Museum depicts a palace scene showing a prospective suitor presenting a ruler with three bags of cacao beans, a cacao drinking vessel, and the cacao glyph included in the PSS. Ek Chuah (above), the Maya God of merchants, cacao, and a Lord of the Underworld, is an important figure in the origins of cacao.http://creativity.denverartmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Final-Mayan-Chocolate-vessel-Illustration.jpghttp://blogs.uoregon.edu/mesoinstitute/files/2013/11/Chocolate-7-op1y2v.jpeg

Iconography

Maya Cacao Glyphhttp://albanykid.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Mayan-Glyph-for-Cocoa.jpg

http://www.worldstandards.eu/images/Ek%20Chuah.jpg

http://creativity.denverartmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Final-Mayan-Chocolate-vessel-Illustration.jpg