I just got a message from MIKE RUGGERI about an important chocolate discovery in the Yucatan!
“Seed residues of chocolate have been found in a dish and not vases for the first time in Mesoamerica. The discovery was made at the Paso del Macho site near a ball court in the Maya Puuc region of the Yucatan. This shows the Maya used cocoa as a condiment as well as a beverage. The residue is dated at 600-500 BCE. It appears to be like a mole sauce preparation found on the dish. The finds were analyzed by a joint team from INAH and from the USA. Mass spectrometry was used to identify the traces. This adds to the growing body of evidence that the Puuc region was far more developed as a Maya cultural area much earlier than had been believed before.
CLICK HERE to read the story (in Spanish) at Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH)
