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

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  (#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."
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  (#2) Ancient Mayans Put Gems In Their Teeth

  The Mayans had an advanced form of dentistry for their time, especially when it came to cosmetic dentistry. While no dentist in the western world would perform this procedure today, it was fairly common among the Mayans to have gems inserted into their teeth. This must have been a grueling procedure, because the dentist had to actually carve holes in the dental enamel. Resin from plant sap was used to glue the gems into place. There were several skulls found that exhibited this cosmetic practice, and these skulls showed that the Mayan dentists were quite skilled. For example, they knew how to drill (typically with obsidian) without hitting the nerve in the tooth. 

  Recent history shows the Mayans were actually ahead of their time; “tooth gems” were a big trend in the '90s in Sweden and America, although that trend didn’t involve a surgical procedure.
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  (#3) They Worshipped Over 165 Gods And Dabbled In Human Sacrifice

  The Mayans were a polytheistic people: They worshiped more than 165 different gods. But perhaps the most infamous aspect of their religion was the tradition of offering up human sacrifices to those deities. Children were a favored sacrifice because of their inherent innocence. Sometimes, children would be abducted and sold for nothing more than the price of a bag of beans. The primary method of sacrifice was cutting open the chest and removing the heart, and it would be performed by a priest called the nacom, and assistants called chacs would hold the victim down. If the sacrifice was performed on top of a pyramid, the corpse would then be thrown down the stairs. Slaves, POWs, and even average Mayan adults could be victims offered for sacrifice.

  Diego de Landa, one of the most famous chroniclers of the Mayans, witnessed human sacrifices. The victims were painted blue and then led up the stairs of the pyramid for the ritual. Besides removal of the victims' hearts, sacrifices also included drowning, beating, and shooting the victims with arrows.
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  (#4) They Ate Delicious Things Like Avocados, Chocolate, And Tamales

  The staples of the Mayan diet were maize, squash, and beans, together referred to as the "three sisters." Besides these main pillars, the Mayans enjoyed a pretty diverse diet, also cultivating chili peppers, sweet potatoes, avocados, tomatoes, papayas, onions, and garlic. For meat, the Mayans consumed turkey, venison, iguana, dog, and wild pigs known as peccary. They also fished in lakes and in oceans.

  The most basic of traditional meals was atole, a warm corn gruel usually served for breakfast. Mayans were the first civilization to make corn tortillas, and they invented tamales, which are corn husks or avocado leaves stuffed with protein and vegetables. They were also the first civilization to roast cacao seeds to make chocolate. So, you have the Mayans to thank for some of your favorite modern dishes.
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  (#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.
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  (#6) They Took Their Ballgames Very Seriously

  The Mayans played a game called pok a tok, a ballgame that they inherited from the Olmecs. It’s also the oldest team sport in the world. The game consisted of a 10-pound rubber ball and teams of one to four people. Similar to volleyball, the ball had to be kept in motion and passed over a line. However, the players could not use their hands, and they had to hit the ball off their mid-section and hips. 

  The largest pok a tok court was found in the Mayan city of Chichen Itza, measuring about 315 feet long and 98 feet wide. Later, the Mayans added rings to the walls surrounding the ball court; if the ball was passed through one of the rings, the game was over.

  The game was brutal. Sometimes players would perish after getting hit with the ball and suffering internal bleeding. POWs were also forced to play, and the losing team would be offered up for ritual sacrifices.
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  (#7) Mayans Bound Children's Heads To Meet Common Beauty Standards

  Like many other ancient civilizations, including the ancient Egyptians, the Mayans practiced head binding. The Mayans considered elongated skulls, flattened foreheads, and slightly crossed eyes to be standards of beauty. To the Mayans, this appearance resembled an ear of corn, from which they believed humankind was created. They had a few methods for achieving this look. To start, though, they would bind an infant’s malleable skull between two planks of wood for long periods of time.
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  (#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.
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  (#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.
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  (#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.
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  (#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.
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  (#12) They Lived In Residential Compounds

  Mayan commoners and wealthy nobles alike both lived in residential compounds — wealthier nobles just had nicer accommodations. Extended families all lived under the same roof, with houses arranged by several buildings situated around patios and terraces. In commoner households, family members slept on the floor on reed mats.

  The homes were usually made of limestone, which was plentiful in the region. The floor was made of white, packed soil, and the walls were covered with adobe and made white with limestone.
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  (#13) Transportation Was On Foot Or By Canoe

  The Mayans connected cities through a system of paved roads, or sacbeob, which were raised above ground, sometimes reaching eight feet in height. Because the Mayans didn’t have draft animals, slaves had to transport goods on these roads in large slave chains. To get to more remote areas, they used canoes. For water transportation, the Mayans built canoes up to 50 feet in length.

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