The currency of cacao
The high stakes of the ballgame
Mesoamerican science and engineering
Gods, myths, and the underworld
YOUR GOAL
Master of The Maya and Aztec worlds
misslily The currency of cacao
Chocolate money, chocolate money! (Don't take those clay beans!)
misslily Instead of sweet bars, ancient chocolate was a frothy, bitter beverage reserved primarily for nobles, priests, and warriors.
misslily Just like modern paper money, cacao currency faced clever counterfeiters who made fake beans out of painted clay.
misslily Trade cacao beans for marketplace goods to discover how chocolate served as ancient money.
Cacao counterfeits: Aztec counterfeiters filled empty cacao husks with dirt or wax to trick market vendors into accepting them as real money.
The seed of a tropical evergreen tree from which cocoa and chocolate are made. During the fifteenth century, Aztec merchants traded these seeds to purchase everyday items like rabbits.
What could a person buy with a single cacao bean in an Aztec market around 1500 CE?
Which group of people in Aztec society was most likely to be allowed to drink chocolate?
Which Aztec god was believed to have stolen cacao from the heavens to give to humans?