2. Sweat Houses in the Mayan World
While the Romans are well-known for their use of magnificent baths, the Mayans had their own version of the sweat-house. Around the turn of the 21st century, a research team that was headed by Boston Universities’ Doctor Norman Hammond managed to find a strange structure in the area of Cuello in the north of Belize. They could not figure out what this structure was for a long time.
They only managed to discover the true identity of this structure by accident. It turned out that it was, in fact, a sweat house and after this discovery, they began conducting further research in the matter and it was soon discovered that the Mayans had been utilising these sweat houses as far back as 900 BC and perhaps even longer ago than that.
The question that needs to be answered then is why the Mayan people used these sweat houses so often when they lived in such a tropical climate already. To answer this question, the researchers proposed three potential reasons for this. One of the reasons was that these sweat houses were used by the people as a cleanse of their body. Another potential reason is that they were used in order to heal different types of diseases. The final potential reason was that they used these houses in order to get in touch with the supernatural and communicate with them.
They were structures that were similar to a small hut and the heat originated from a fire that was lit and only about ten people could it inside of this structure at any given time. It is very confined inside and it is hard to find a place to sit and you are unable to stand. It has a low door which means only a single person can enter at a time by going in on their hands and knees. The baths would be dry and hot, leading to significant sweating for anyone inside. Very often these sweat houses would be used to help cure some form of ailment, usually fevers. It was also used extensively following the birth of a child, as well as by those who had been wounded by a poisonous animal.