The aroma of chocolate may be velvety and rich, but that doesn’t mean it was reserved for the elites in ancient Mesoamerica. New chemical analysis reveals that despite what many archaeologists have assumed, less affluent Maya families had access to cacao as well.
“The suggestion that the use of cacao is restricted to or used exclusively by the elite must be set aside,” write the authors in a study published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
