The importance of cacao in ancient Mesoamerica is attested by the presence of cacao biomarkers in ritual pottery. By at least the Postclassic period, if not earlier, cacao beans are thought to have been a prominent mode of currency in the central Yucatan. During the colonial period the Maya of Yucatan were tending sacred groves of cacao trees in the shaded, humid microclimates of karst sinkholes that dot the peninsula. We report on the development of a method for the extraction and quantitation of the methylxanthine biomarkers of cacao (theobromine, theophylline, and caffeine) from soil. The presence of these biomarkers provides evidence of the distribution and ritual importance of these sacred cacao groves to the Maya. Methylxanthine biomarkers were present in the soils of nine of eleven sampled sinkholes in Yucatan and Quintana Roo, MX.

可可生物标志物在仪式陶器中的存在证明了可可在古代中美洲的重要性。至少在后古典时期，如果不是更早的话，可可豆被认为是尤卡坦中部的一种主要货币。在殖民时期，尤卡坦半岛的玛雅人在遍布半岛的喀斯特天坑的阴凉潮湿小气候中照料神圣的可可树。我们报告了从土壤中提取和定量可可（可可碱、茶碱和咖啡因）的甲基黄嘌呤生物标志物的方法的开发。这些生物标志物的存在提供了这些神圣可可树对玛雅人的分布和仪式重要性的证据。在墨西哥尤卡坦和金塔纳罗奥的 11 个采样落水洞中有 9 个的土壤中存在甲基黄嘌呤生物标志物。