Tailor Made Holidays in Honduras: In the News

Mayan death pot found in grave: 04-12-2007

A rare death vase has been found in the grave of a member of the Maya elite, according to scientists.

The intricately carved vase is the first to be found during modern times and indicates there may have been ancient rituals of ancestor worship in the Maya society.

These include food offerings, chocolate enemas and hallucinations induced by vomiting, according to reports from National Geographic.

Archaeologists found the vase while excavating a small palace in Honduras and it was placed next to parts of a human skeleton.

Soil samples revealed the traces of false ipecac, a plant that causes severe nausea when eaten and this may suggest that the vase may have been used in ancient rites the Maya practiced to hallucinate, according to Christian Wells, an anthropologist at the University of South Florida.

The Maya believed that you could contact ancestors by having hallucinations and Mr Wells believe the pot contained a substance that induced sickness.

"We think this beverage [in the vase] may have contained ipecac, which would have made the person who's drinking it throw up - a lot. Then, by throwing up a lot, they could've had visions that would have allowed them to talk with the ancestors," he said.


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