Ancient Maya Ball Court May Have Been Blessed, Hallucinogenic Find Hints

Archaeologists have uncovered an intriguing ritual deposit below an ancient Maya ball court in Mexico—and it could indicate that the structure was blessed in a special ceremony.

An international team of researchers subsequently analyzed the "special" deposit—unearthed in the ancient Maya city of Yaxnohcah—finding that it contained traces of several plants used in ceremonial rituals, a study published in the journal PLOS ONE reported. These plants, which include one with hallucinogenic properties, are known for their religious associations and medicinal properties.

The latest findings help shed light on the ritual life of the ancient Maya, which is sometimes not well understood.

"For millennia, healing and psychoactive plants have been part of the medicinal and ceremonial fabric of elaborate rituals and everyday religious practices throughout Mesoamerica," the international team of authors wrote in the paper.

"Despite the essential nature of these ritual practices to the societal framework of past cultures, a clear understanding of the ceremonial life of the ancient Maya remains stubbornly elusive."

Most of what is known about Maya rituals comes from modern ethnographic sources, while ancient artworks, texts and occasional well-preserved archaeological contexts have also provided researchers with information.

While ritual deposits have previously been uncovered at Maya archaeological sites, the plants associated with ceremonial activities are rarely preserved. This is largely due to the conditions for plant preservation in the Maya region—characterized as a tropical climate—as being generally very poor.

But in the latest study, the team—including American, Canadian and Mexican researchers—was able to use an "environmental DNA" (eDNA) analysis to identify several plant types in samples taken from the ritual deposit, which is thought to be around 2,000 years old.

The four plant types, identified by their fragmented DNA in the samples, include a vine in the morning glory family (Ipomoea corymbosa), chili peppers, a tree known as jool (Hampea trilobata) and the lancewood plant (Oxandra lanceolata).

All four of the plants, which were likely wrapped together in a bundle, have recognized medicinal properties. But of the group, perhaps the most intriguing in the deposit is I. corymbosa (known to the Maya as "xtabentun"), according to the researchers.

This plant produces powerful hallucinogenic compounds and is reported from a Maya archaeological context for the first time in this study. Today, modern-day Maya people brew mead from the honey of bees that feed on the pollen of xtabentun flowers. But details of its use among the ancient Maya are lacking. Nevertheless, it is believed that it was used in divination rituals, a practice intended to facilitate direct interaction with the spirits to see into the future.

Chili peppers, meanwhile, were used by the ancient Maya to treat a variety of illnesses—thus, such ceremonial offerings may have been intended to ward off disease. These plants have also been associated with divination rituals.

"We think of chili as a spice. But it was much more than that for the ancient Maya. It was a healing plant used in many ceremonies," David Lentz, lead author of the study with the University of Cincinnati (UC), said in a press release.

The oily leaves of the lancewood plant are known to be a vasodilator (a compound that opens blood vessels), an anesthetic and an antibiotic agent.

Finally, the leaves of the jool tree were used to wrap food bundles for Maya ceremonies, while twine made from the bark was weaved into baskets. The plant was also used as a medicine to treat snake bites.

While interpreting a collection of 2,000-year-old organic remains can be challenging, the finding of all these plants together is significant.

"I think the fact that these four plants, which have a known cultural importance to the Maya, were found in a concentrated sample tells us it was an intentional and purposeful collection," study author Eric Tepe, botanist with UC, said in the press release.

The plant deposit was found beneath a plaza floor of a 3-foot-high stone and earthen ceremonial platform during excavations of part of the ball court at Yaxnohcah, which is located in the state of Campeche on the Yucatán Peninsula. This platform originally supported several domestic structures from the Middle Preclassic period (1,000–400 B.C.). But subsequently, during the Late Preclassic period (400 B.C.-A.D. 200), the platform was remodeled and the ball court added on top of it.

The Maya, along with other Mesoamerican societies, played several ballgames on courts like these. However, such games were not created solely for entertainment. They served a fundamental ritual and political role for these ancient cultures, with the ball courts often occupying "prime real estate" in the ceremonial centers of some cities.

The nature of the Yaxnohcah plant deposit and site of discovery indicate an association with the transformation of the platform from a domestic to a ceremonial space.

According to the study, perhaps the most likely explanation is that the plants represent some form of ceremonial offering made during construction of the ball court. This would have been intended to appease the gods in a way that would ensure their blessings in subsequent activities associated with the newly constructed ball court space.

"The nearest analogy in our culture that I can think of is when a priest blesses a new ship in an effort to ask God to protect the mariners," Lentz told Newsweek.

According to Lentz, the ritual bundle could also have been used in some form of divination or healing ceremony.

"I believe that the ritual bundle could have served as part of a divination, healing, or blessing ceremony, or all three at once—it is hard to say given an opaque lens of 2,000 years," the researcher said.

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Update 05/10/24, 9:01 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from David Lentz.