December 14, 2019
Every once in a while, we get fun news~updates from some of the minor (smaller) Maya sites. Consider recent reports offering beautiful insights into the founding & lifestyles of Paso del Macho … Think BOTH Jade & Chocolate.
There’s a fun Archeology.org article out describing fun jade (ritual?) items found under the plaza of Paso del Macho Puuc site, that describes
“ … an offering made when the settlement was founded between 900 and 800 B.C. It contains some of the earliest evidence of Maya fertility rituals. … (describing) more than 30 artifacts made of greenstone, including small stones that symbolize maize sprouting from the underworld, represent events in the story of the maize god’s birth. ”
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This latest article fits nicely with past fun chocolate findings from Paso del Macho, from a separate-but-related article on chocolate found at Paso del Macho:
“2,500-year-old Cacao Residue Discovered in the Maya Puuc Region of Yucatán.”
“Traces of cacao – or chocolate – have been found for the first time in an archeological context in Yucatán; the chemical residues of the seed (usually called “beans”) were found adhered to two fragments of 2,500-year-old Mayan ceramic pottery, recovered from the Paso del Macho archeological site.”
“One of the fragments discovered is a plate, which suggests to scientists that the pre-Hispanic Mayans may have used it for their food as a sauce having a consistency similar to that of mole*.
“The discovery is of relevance to archaeology, because it indicates that the use of cacao may go as far back as 600-500 B.C., ”
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Jade, mole and Chocolate !
Our Puuc Maya knew how live !
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Feel free to copy while giving proper attribution: YucaLandia/Surviving Yucatan.
© Steven M. Fry
Read on, MacDuff.
Surviving Yucatan 
So, where is Paso del Macho Puuc ?