How Chocolate ruled Mesoamerica

  Many of the goods we use in our daily lives come from the Americas. World famous “American” products such as corn, maize, avocados are foods that originated in the Americas or the New World. Although we live in the United States there are many ingredients and foods at the local supermarket which are considered foreign foods. Some of these are wheat, cattles and sheep. Some of these products and animals never existed in the Americas until the Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange was an exchange of goods, flora, fauna, diseases and concepts. This term was created in 1972 by historian Alfred Crosby who saw the biological exchange caused as a result of the conquests and campaigns of European Expansion. This exchange allowed Europe to transition with new products and make it their own. The Italians who are world famous for their “pomodoro pasta”( tomato) and many in our generation believe that tomatoes came from Italy. In reality, tomatoes were a product from the americas which ...

  During the classical period (c.250-900AD), scholars assumed that Mayans decorated cylinder vessels which we presumed were the tools used to drink chocolate. In the modern age, the assumption is that all cylinder shaped objects are used for some form of liquid whether it be consumed or meant to contain a liquid. However, we need to re-think these ideas about the Maya using cylindrical objects. The Mayan cylinder vessels look presumably as such liquids holders used for drinking and consumption. However, when we look at certain types of these vessels with also the history of behaviors by the elites in Mayan society this is not the case. The Mayans did not use decorated cylinder vessels for drinking but actually for the storage of essential items. First by using modern technology to determine that these vessels were actually used to store cacao and maize, then we examine the portraits of cacao and maize used by elites in Mayan society.   T here are different types of cups used b...