Traces of cacao have been found in pottery unearthed from an ancient ceremonial site in Ecuador, indicating our taste for chocolate began at least 5,300 years ago.
The discovery, reported in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, suggests the chocolate tree was domesticated at least 1,500 years earlier and much further south than we previously thought.
Until now, there had been a long-held idea that chocolate was first developed in Mexico and Central America, said archaeologist Michael Blake.
“We knew, based on historical texts and archaeological evidence, that cacao and chocolate were tremendously important food and drink for people in that part of America,” said Professor Blake, from the University of British Columbia.
The word ‘chocolate’ is a European interpretation of a Mayan word for ‘bitter water’ — a description of the ritual drink prepared from fermented and roasted beans from the chocolate tree (Theobroma cacao).
Spanish conquistadors introduced the drink into Europe in the early 1500s after witnessing the Aztec king drinking cacao at the royal court in Tenochtitlan — what is now Mexico City.
Further south in Central America, pottery from Maya sites going back to 1300 BC was found to contain residues of theobromine — Latin for “the food of gods” — the active ingredient that gives cocoa its delicious flavour.
But botanists have long known that the Amazon basin is home to the greatest diversity of chocolate tree varieties and related species.
Sitting within that biodiversity hotspot is the ancient site of Santa Ana-La Florida on the eastern flanks of the Andes.
Since it was discovered in 2002, archaeologists have unearthed tombs and a range of ceramics and artefacts that suggest the site was used for religious rituals and funeral rites by the Mayo-Chinchipe people.
Some of the ceramics reminded Professor Blake of the spouted vessels used by the Maya for chocolate.
“Pouring the chocolate out of the spouts back and forth created a foam that was greatly prized by the Maya,” Professor Blake said.
Three lines of detective work pin down cocoa
In 2010, Professor Blake asked anthropological archaeologist Sonia Zarrillo, who was studying starch remnants in the ceramics from the site, whether or not she had detected any signs of starch from cacao.
At first, Dr Zarillo — who studies the interaction between people and plants in the past — didn’t think it would be possible to find the tiny grains.
“Cacao seeds aren’t starchy, like, say wheat or corn seeds,” Dr Zarrillo explained.
But two years later, after collecting more grains from the pottery and comparing them to grains from a range of cacao varieties, she identified a shape that appeared to be unique to the Theobroma genus.
In the meantime, other members of the team detected chemical signatures of theobromine in residue in some of the artefacts, including one which was between 5,450 and 5,300 years old.
Then a team of geneticists led by Claire Lanaud analysed ancient DNA in the slurry of organic material that had seeped into the clay pots.
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