Origins of chocolate pushed back by 1,500 yrs

[Still Waters]

Chocolate is not a new thing. The delicious, addictive treat we know today has long been traced to the ancient peoples of Central America, as far back as 4,000 years ago.

But new research indicates chocolate's origin story is actually far, far older than this – and suggests it was domesticated somewhere else entirely, south of the indigenous cultures of Mesoamerica.

According to a new international study co-led by researchers from the University of British Columbia in Canada, ancient chemical residues coating ceramic artefacts discovered in the highlands of Ecuador form strong evidence Theobroma cacao (aka the cacao or cocoa tree) was in use in South America as far back as 5,450 years ago.

https://www.sciencealert.com/forgotten-origins-chocolate-mesoamerica-ecuador-theobroma-cacao-santa-ana-la-florida-ancient-mayo-chinchipe-culture

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0697-x

[The Caspian Hare]

https://www.cirad.fr/en/news/all-news-items/press-releases/2018/the-indians-of-the-ecuadorian-amazon-were-using-cocoa-5300-years-ago

The use and domestication of Theobroma cacao during the mid-Holocene in the upper Amazon. Nature Ecology and Evolution

Quote

An international team* associating archaeologists, anthropologists, biochemists and geneticists recently found for the first time archaeological traces of cocoa use in South America in pre-Columbian times. This result is published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Traces of cocoa dating back 5300 years have been found in ancient pots in the Ecuadorian Amazon. This is the oldest proof of cocoa use ever found. It predates the domestication of cocoa by the Olmec and the Maya in Central America by some 1500 years.

This evidence was collected in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon, at the Santa Ana La Florida (SALF) archaeological site near Palanda, discovered 16 years ago by the archaeologist Francisco Valdez and his Franco-Ecuadorian team (IRD/INPC) (2). The Mayo Chinchipe, the oldest known Amerindian civilization in the upper Amazon, had consumed cocoa almost continuously from at least 5300 years to 2100 years before present. Traces of houses and of a ceremonial site remain.

 

[Piney]

One of our best "return packages" to Europeans.

COKE! 

[BorizBadinov]

Ancient people were wise knowing the best thing when sitting around a campfire at night is a nice cup of hot cocoa

 

[+and-then]

1 hour ago, BorizBadinov said:

Ancient people were wise knowing the best thing when sitting around a campfire at night is a nice cup of hot cocoa

 

As a long-term caffeine addict, I can say without hesitation that all it takes to remember that it IS a drug, is to be without it for a day or two  

[BorizBadinov]

1 hour ago, and then said:

As a long-term caffeine addict, I can say without hesitation that all it takes to remember that it IS a drug, is to be without it for a day or two  

I live on caffeine. I get headaches if I go even half a day without. It definitely has a harsh effect if you try and stop. That way I don't have to sleep.... because I cant >.<

[Tatetopa]

On 11/6/2018 at 6:54 AM, Piney said:

One of our best "return packages" to Europeans.

Not to mention gambling, cigarettes, and fireworks for the locals.

[SHaYap]

It is a curious fact to me that raw sugar, cocoa and coffee did not make that much of an impact in the long history of the East until quite recently ... more to do with a staple diet of rice and tea being the answer to all things Asian perhaps ....

~