FLAAR is dedicated to publishing our research reports on flora, fauna, biodiverse ecosystems of Guatemala, plus iconography (symbolism in Maya art) and epigraphy (Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions). Recently we presented an in-depth study of lots of aspects of Maya chocolate for thousands of years, focused on:
- Flora: all three species of cacao: Theobroma cacao, Theobroma bicolor (pataxte or balamte), and the rare species Theobroma angustifolium.
- Fauna: squirrels and monkeys love to eat the white sap that surrounds the seeds of Theobroma cacao; and the Maya associated mythical crocodiles with sacred cacao seeds. There are separate FLAAR Reports on iconography of monkeys in Classic Maya art that show spider monkeys with cacao pods.
- Iconography: the symbolism of cacao, chocolate, for over a thousand years in Tzakol and Tepeu centuries of the Classic Maya.
- Epigraphy: in this lecture by Hellmuth you can learn how the Classic Maya wrote the word kakaw(a)
- Archaeology: Hellmuth found cacao seeds in 1965 while excavating inside the Tomb of the Jade Jaguar (Tikal Burial 196) that he discovered below the Tikal pyramid Str. 5D-73, a few meters south of Temple II. Cacao was popular with the Teotihuacanos and the later Aztecs so they came to the Maya areas to obtain the precious seeds of cacao.
So, if you download and read all the chapters you will learn about botany, ethnobotany, Maya hieroglyphic writing, and Classic Maya archaeology.
Maya Cacao Lecture Downloads
Archaeology and Iconography of Theobroma cacao
And Faux Cacao (cacao look-alikes) in Classic Maya Art.
Classic Maya Hieroglyph for Kakaw(a)
Chocolate of the Classic Maya. Archaeology, Epigraphy and Iconography of this Hieroglyph in the Primary Standard Sequence Dedicatory Formula.
Seeds used by Maya People to make Chocolate
This is a preview of further cacao research projects that’s worth downloading even though just a preview. There are several seeds of various different trees in Guatemala that are still used by Maya People to make chocolate when there is no Theobroma cacao available.
Chocolate in Maya Culture of the Classic through to today
Keep in mind that all chapters together in a single PDF is very heavy.
This PDF is the entire multiple “chapters” of the English original of the lecture at MUNAG.
If you prefer the lectures en español, there are two options:
1st, the year 2025 lecture on cacao at the Museo Popol Vuh, Universidad Francisco Marroquin is available as a video: Árboles, bebidas y glifos mayas de cacao
2nd: all the chapters of the May 2026 lecture at MUNAG, Antigua Guatemala are available as downloads in PDF format en español on www.FLAAR-Mesoamerica.org
Additional FLAAR Reports on Maya cacao, chocolate: especially iconography and ethnobotany
Especially iconography and ethnobotany.
We Raise Theobroma cacao in our FLAAR Ethnobotanical Research Garden
You can see the beautiful flowers of cacao trees that grow at 1,600 meters above sea level in our research garden: Cacao in the Mayan Culture and other interesting facts
We have studied cacao in Tabasco and Soconusco (Chiapas), taking photos for all three editions of Sophie Coe and Michael Coe’s book on cacao, The True History of Chocolate. We have studied cacao across Guatemala and in the village of Copan Ruinas, Honduras. Since Theobroma cacao is the least studied, we have been accomplishing field trips to study balamte in Alta Verapaz still during 2026.
Acknowledgements and Appreciation
We thank Licda. María Antonieta Godoy Muñoz (Administradora de MUNAG) and Jimmy Isaí Caal Estrada (Curaduría en arqueología for MUNAG) for the invitation to give a lecture on MAYA CACAO at MUNAG (Museo Nacional de Arte de Guatemala, Antigua Guatemala). We first knew Jimmy Estrada from his photography at Fundacion la Ruta Maya and his capability to make rollouts of Maya vases, so several years ago we invited Jimmy on one of our research trips to Copan Ruinas, Honduras, to accomplish rollouts of vases there.
Written by Nicholas Hellmuth, July 2026
