The Mayas And The Food They Ate

The Mayas And The Food They Ate

by Frank D Gardner

Maize was a staple of the diets consumed by both the Mayan and Aztec cultures. Corn, the name it's more commonly known by, was a pillar of nutrition that sustained both empires in a manner similar to that of rice with respect to East Asian civilizations of the same period. Archaeologists have excavated some of the earliest known corn farms in territory controlled by both groups, leading many to speculate that the Mayans were among the first to discover and perfect the concepts of farming and irrigation. Modern science has analyzed evidence pointing to the corn seed being a viable agricultural product predating even the Mayan, Aztec, and Olmec civilizations, perhaps as early as 5,000 BC.

The practice of turning large areas of previously thick tropical forest into human-cultivated farming plots was one of the critical advancements that allowed Maya and Aztec cities and civilizations to thrive. Our best indications are that the traditional Mesoamerican diet consisted mainly of farmed corn, beans, and manioc (tubers), supplemented by wild game, which was mixed into the food when available to balance out its nutritional properties and provide a healthy level of protein. However, the subject of beverages is one which still leaves many anthropologists unsure when contemplating the typical Mesoamerican's eating habits. It seems likely that simple collecting rainwater would have been insufficient, despite the wet jungle environs, due in part to the large populations which both cultures managed to support for long periods of time in highly urbanized settings.

Maize as a Food and Beverage

Not so widely-known is the Maya's apparent predilection for using corn and beans to make drinks as well as in meals. As their love of sweet foods is well-documented, the two plants were probably mashed and combined with sugar and water to make a milky, sweet drink, which could have been consumed at mealtimes instead of water.

Chocolate Delights

Evidence that the Maya royalty and elite class enjoyed chocolate as a delicacy is abundant; in fact, the Maya were the first to make chocolate into a drink to serve their ruling class. It's safe to assume that the methods those early Mayan cooks stumbled upon to perfect their hot chocolate could also have been applied to making a more delicious bean or corn elixir for the common folk as well.

A Source of Sugar

The Mayan territories were ideal for the growing of coca beans, which are notoriously reluctant to flourish in other areas. However, growing sugar cane posed more of a problem. To satisfy their craving for sweet teas and treats, the Maya had to invent a practice which was in many ways an essential component of the human race's development, and one that is certainly highly prized even in modern times: they became the first beekeepers.

To begin the process by which honey could be used to sweeten Mayan food and drink, cooks would first have to boil the maze or beans that would be used for the base of the drink. Boiling killed bacteria, and the next step, straining the mix and mashing it into a fine paste, removed the possibility that leaves, bugs, or other contaminants like raw seeds would make it through into the final product. The resulting material would be boiled again in a fresh pot of water to thin it, and the beekeeper's honey gradually added, while the boiling liquid was stirred to ensure the honey distributed equally.

As honey was a common ingredient used in Maya cooking, one might be tempted to consider what kind of confection first introduced them to the wonders of sweetening all sorts of foodstuffs. Was it a pot of prepared sweet tea with some maize accidentally boiled into the mix? Whatever it was, the cultivation of both bees and corn stand as tributes to the unparalleled ingenuity of the Maya. Two thousand years before the first Egyptian bowed down before the Sun-god, Mesoamericans were toiling away on their maize farms, building the seeds of one of history's greatest and most mysterious empires.



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