Mundo Maya Blog
About this blog
Travelers to Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras in 2012 can expect a yearlong celebration of Maya culture, past and present—and Moon Maya 2012 author Joshua Berman is blogging about all of it.
Recent Posts
- Maya 2012: A Round-up of Celebrations in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize & Honduras
- Reporting for National Geographic on Maya winter solstice in Belize
- Maya calendar cycle celebrated throughout Central America
- Feliz B'aktun! The New Dawn is Here: The First Sunrise in Caracol, Belize
- Maya Calendar 101: What Does “December 21, 2012” Really Mean?
- Gifts for Mayaphiles
- Books on the Maya: Suggested Reading for 2012
- Izapa Sunrise Story by Mary Jo McConahay
- Tranquilo Radio Tour 2012: Seven hours straight of talking about travel
- Tune in this Wednesday! Maya 2012 author Josh Berman on a radio show near you!
- End Maya-Aztec calendar confusion now!
- Q&A with Maya Experts on Satellite Imagery of Archaeological Sites
- Maya response to 'doomsday' 2012 stories
- Only a couple of rooms left for "The Great Return: Copan 2012" tour of a lifetime!
- 5 Questions about Traveling in the Mundo Maya for Rafael Garcia
600-year-old cigars discovered in Guatemala
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A press release on a cigar store website entitled "Famous Smoke to Auction Pre-Columbian Mayan Cigars," is reporting that "A team of Tampa University scientists working in southeast Guatemala has unearthed a large cache of 828 pre-Columbian cigars. The cigars are believed to be at least 600 years old. The team had been examining mineral samples at a Ch’orti’ Maya cave site."
They have also determined that the cigars are, in fact, "in smokeable condition," and will be auctioning them to the highest bidder on April 2, 2012, with the proceeds going to Tampa University (though I wonder if this is entirely legal, since I would think the cigars are archaeological artifacts. Please enlighten me in the comments if you know more about this).
The article goes on: "The cigars were buried several feet below the cave surface in sealed clay pots, each of which bore syllabic glyphs labeling the contents as 'sicars,' meaning, 'to smoke rolled tobacco leaves.' They appear to have remained largely preserved. The discovery marks the first time actual tobacco has been found, and only the third time a Mayan clay pot’s inscription has matched its contents."
Related article from January, 2012: "First physical evidence of tobacco in Mayan vessel."
UPDATE: I got pwnd! This was totally an April Fools' joke, sorry, smokers!
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There is never any need to
Posted by Wayne Bernhardson on April 2, 2012 at 7:04 pm
There is never any need to apologize to smokers. Smokers should apologize to you.