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Abstract:
CAVO-A54 is a small cave in the eastern Tlacolula Valley, which is part of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. The site has architectural features that suggest it was used for storage, an interpretation that is somewhat at odds with the cave’s inaccessibility and diminutive size. The materials recovered by its excavation, mostly soil and paleobotanical remains, suggest that pulque or pulque starter were likely stored in the hollow feature that takes up the entirety of the cave. Pulque is a beverage of unknown antiquity made from the fermentation of maguey sap. We suggest that to evade the prying and unwelcomed eyes and laws of the colonial authorities and to provide a cool, secure storage place, people used CAVO-A54 to hide pulque in production.
