A new archaeological mission at the Xunan site in Belize has unearthed an industrial-scale cacao processing hub. The team discovered over fifty ceramic storage vats containing chemical signatures of theobromine, suggesting the city was a major exporter of cacao to the Central Mexican highlands during the Late Classic period.
This discovery highlights the economic complexity of the Mayan civilization, showing that specific urban centers were specialized in luxury commodity production. The find also includes rare stone-weights that suggest a standardized system of measurement for the cacao trade across the Maya Lowlands.