Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that the ancient Maya may have possibly made ceremonial offerings when building the ball boxes they used for sporting events. A foreign team of researchers has used advances in environmental DNA (eDNA) research to stumble upon the presence of several known plants. for medicinal and religious purposes. Microscopic fragments of ancient plants were discovered beneath the soil of a Mayan ball box in present-day Mexico and are described in a study published April 26 in the journal PLOS One.
The study is a collaboration between Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, in collaboration with scholars from the University of Cincinnati in the United States, the University of Calgary in Canada, the Autonomous University of Campeche in Mexico, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
From 2016 to 2022, the team excavated the ruins of the ancient city of Yaxnohcah, an ancient giant city located in what is now the Mexican state of Campeche near the Guatemalan border. The design studied was built between 1000 and 400 B. C. It was later transformed around 400 B. C. -200 A. D. B. C. , when a box of balls was added.
According to the team, the ancient Maya participated in various ball games. One of them included pok-a-tok, a combination of football and basketball in the midst of a renaissance. Players were probably looking to get a ball through a hoop into a hoop attached to a wall. Playing fields were vital places within cities and were even built near some of the largest temples, especially in ancient Mayan cities such as Tikal in Guatemala.
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“The playing fields occupied first-rate fields in the ceremonial center. They were a building block of the city,” study co-author David Lentz, a paleobotanist and paleoecologist at the University of Cincinnati, said in a statement. “But not all playing fields had hoops. Today, we think of playing fields as a place of entertainment. This is not the case with the ancient Maya.
The structure of new projects is subject to ceremonies, similar to how a new ship is christened by breaking a bottle of champagne at the bow or how a ribbon is cut today when a new ship is opened.
“When they erected a new building, they asked for the gods’ goodwill toward the other people who inhabited it,” Lentz explained. “Some other people call it a ‘soul ritual,’ meant to obtain the blessing of the gods and appease them. “
Offerings and blessings were also made when buildings such as the ball box were expanded or repurposed. While ceramics or jewelry can be discovered alongside culturally significant plants, it’s much easier to locate plant remains in tropical regions. Moist air can cause them to decompose quickly, which is why archaeologists relied on trapped pollen samples to get an idea of the plant species present.
The study of environmental DNA (eDNA) provides insight into which plants were present. eDNA is a tissue of an organism that can be found in a surrounding environment. It comes from cellular tissue excreted through organisms, such as skin or feces. It can be used to track species of plants, animals, and fungi that are found nearby. Unlike fossilized bones or physical anthropological evidence, such as tools, eDNA can only be sampled using new molecular methods.
[Related: Scientists Track Deep-Sea Creatures With Free-Floating DNA. ]
To identify several types of plants known for their use in rituals from the eDNA left behind, the team used a product called RNAlater. It preserves the samples while they are returned to the University of Cincinnati lab. Special genetic probes related to plant species discovered in this region helped them distinguish the fragmented DNA of several species. They then assembled DNA sequences from those fragments and compared them to sequences stored in the U. S. National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database. UU. llamada GenBank.
The team detected lines from 4 other plants related to ancient Mayan medicine and divination rituals.
The first is a bell called xtabentún. It is known for its hallucinogenic properties and mead is made from the honey of bees that feed on the pollen of xtabentun flowers.
Traces of chili pepper were also detected. This spice, still popular today, was used to treat diseases among the ancient Maya. A supply of chili pepper would possibly be aimed at warding off disease, as it was a medicinal plant used in many ceremonies.
The eDNA research also met the Hampea trilobata or jool tree. The leaves of this tree were used to wrap bodies in Mayan ceremonies, and the bark was used to make baskets, ropes, and heal snakebites.
The plant Oxandra lanceolatal or lancewood is also provided on this site. Its oily leaves are a known anesthetic and antibiotic.
“I think the fact that these four plants, which had cultural significance to the Maya, were discovered in a concentrated pattern tells us that this is an intentional, planned collection as a component of this platform,” said the co-author and botanist from the University of Cincinnati. Eric. Tepe said in a statement.
Studying eDNA in this way promises researchers to be even more informed about ancient civilizations, as it can cross-reference written and oral sources.
“We’ve known for years, through ethnohistorical sources, that the Maya also used perishable fabrics in those offerings,” study co-author Nicholas Dunning, an environmental biologist at the University of Cincinnati, said in a statement. “But it’s almost locating them archaeologically, which is what makes this discovery employing eDNA so extraordinary. “
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