Water, Cacao, and the Early Maya of Chocola' /Jonathan Kaplan and Federico Paredes Umaña ; Foreword by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase.
- Gainesville : University Press of Florida, (c)2018.
- 1 online resource (xxvii, 494 pages) : illustrations, maps
Includes bibliographies and index.
List of tables -- Foreword -- Preface and acknowledgments -- Introduction and historical context -- Physical environment and cultural ecology -- Ethnohistory and history of the Southern Maya region, Suchitepequez, and Chocolá -- Archaeological operations in mounds, plazas and features -- The ceramics of Chocolá -- The monuments of Chocolá, and nearby -- Materialist factors: water and cacao at Chocolá -- Conclusions.
In describing what was, in effect, a lost Maya city, the book highlights the many important research findings to date of long-term field research at the city, including a very early, yet extraordinarily sophisticated ancient water control system, and evidence for cacao arboriculture, to explain its rise to wealth and power as a "kingdom of chocolate"; also detailed are the ancient city's sculpture and ceramics and the ethnohistory of the modern Maya community lying atop it.