Random Things About Life In Mayan Empire Was Way Weirder Than You Thought (13 items)

• 

  (#10) Clothes Were Sometimes Embellished With Jewelry

  Among the common Mayans (also known as the memba uinicoob), the clothes were pretty basic. Men typically wore loincloths, and sometimes they added ponchos in colder weather. Women wore blouses and long skirts, or huipil. They wore simple accessories like bracelets, necklaces, anklets, and earrings. They made the fiber for the clothing from the agave plant, from which they would extract fibers from the leaves. They also used cotton plants, spinning both sources of fabric into cloth and coloring it with dyes like indigo. These items made up the Mayans' everyday clothing. Of course, the elite had more elaborate costumes that would be embellished with shells and jade. Religious ceremonies also had more intricate apparel.
• 

  (#11) Women Made Pottery While Men Worked The Fields

  As in most ancient civilizations, there was a straightforward division of labor. Among the commoners, women looked after the home, raised the children, prepared meals, collected honey from beehives, made pottery, and weaved clothing. Meanwhile, men worked in the fields, known as milpas, tending their crops. This was no easy task, as ancient Mayans didn’t have any beasts of burden or draft animals like horses or oxen. Since it was manpower alone that plowed the fields, they typically used slash and burn farming techniques.
• 

  (#8) They Had Some Elaborate Hairstyles

  The Mayans put a lot of energy into their appearance, especially their hair. Men and women both grew their thick black hair long and usually wore it up and pulled back tightly in a ponytail to emphasize the length of the forehead. The men may have shaved the hair on the sides of the head but left a long streak of hair down the middle. The men also burned the hair at the hair line to give the appearance of an even more drastic receding hairline. Women wore their hair in braids, sometimes interwoven with ribbon. The elite class wore elaborate headdresses, consisting of animal skins, jade, and other precious materials.
• 

  (#1) They Got Intoxicated With Enemas Made Of Fermented Chocolate

  Ancient Mayans drank a beverage called balche for ceremonial purposes. Balche came from the fermented bark of the tree of the same name and was sweetened with honey and sometimes anise. This was like the Mayan version of ambrosia. They considered it to be a drink passed down from the gods. Chocolate-based fermented drinks were also popular, and these were sometimes mixed with hallucinogenic substances. They also drank pulque, an alcoholic beverage made from fermented agave.

  Evidence shows the Mayans were also into enemas for the purpose of getting as intoxicated as possible. Depictions of enemas being administered are prevalent among Mayan art. One anonymous Spanish conquistador wrote about the practice in Narrative of Some Things of New Spain and of the Great City of Temestitan, “The men are great sodomites, cowards, and, bored with drinking wine with their mouths, lie down and extending their legs, have the wine poured into their anus through a tube until the body is full."
• 

  (#5) Tattoos And Piercings Were A Huge Part Of Their Culture

  The ancient Mayans had some fairly extreme body modifications. Both men and women would have tattoos. However, the process was said to be very painful, so only the “bravest” of Mayans would get them. The design was first painted on, and then it was cut into. The wound would then be covered with paint. Men would not get tattooed until after marriage, and women would get their upper body tattooed but avoided their breasts.

  The Mayans pierced their bodies not only for beautification purposes, but also as a bloodletting sacrifice to the gods. They pierced their ears, genitals, and tongues with thorns or stingrays spines. They then put the blood on pieces of paper and burn them as offerings to the gods.

  They also pierced for beautification purposes. The Mayans were master jewelry makers, and both men and women pierced their lips, noses, and ears. Only men wore nose and lip plugs, though.
• 

  (#9) They Used Tobacco To Treat Asthma

  The Mayans were hygienic people who bathed often. They washed their hands and mouths after eating and often took cold water baths and sometimes steam baths before religious ceremonies. When it came to illness, though, they believed disease was an infliction of the spirit. They would often bleed different parts of the body, like cutting the forehead, to cleanse the body of the illness. They also had several herbal cures for ailments. They believed that getting drunk on balche and vomiting was a cure for upset stomach and diarrhea. They also mistakenly thought that tobacco was a cure for asthma.

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking