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Did the Mayans have plantations of cacao trees, or did they simply gather the fruit from cacao trees in the wild?

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up vote 8 down vote accepted

According to Cacao domestication I: the origin of the cacao cultivated by the Mayas, genetic evidence indicates that the cacao tree was cultivated from wild ancestors and improved over time.

Mayans were pretty good at agriculture, beyond the slash and burn methods that were used by many other tribes in the Americas during the same time period.

From Maya Agriculture


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+1, but pretty much every ancient people was good at agriculture, given a chance. The main issue is if they had good domesticable plants available to them. – T.E.D. Jun 20 '12 at 13:42

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