[Aztlan] Earliest use of chocolate in the ancient Southwest at Chaco

[Robert Hall]

Any ideas on how one might distinguish between the theobromine in cacao and the theobromine in Ilex vomitoria, the Black Drilnk used ritually in the Southeastern United States?

--- On Mon, 2/2/09, michael ruggeri <michaelruggeri at mac.com> wrote:

From: michael ruggeri <michaelruggeri at mac.com>
Subject: [Aztlan] Earliest use of chocolate in the ancient Southwest at Chaco
To: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
Date: Monday, February 2, 2009, 8:10 PM

Listeros,

The earliest use of chocolate in the Ancient American Southwest was in  
1000 AD. Traces of theobromine, a distinct marker for Cacao, was found  
on pottery shards at Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon in New Mexico.  
These findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National  
Academy of Sciences. Interaction between Mesoamerica and the Southwest  
looks is the causative factor. Chocolate was obviously a trade item  
from Mesoamerica joining other trade items like copper bells and  
scarlet macaws.

The cylinders with traces of theobromine are low in number and found  
in caches suggesting chocolate was used as a ritual object.

The Los Angeles Times has the story here;
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-cacao3-2009feb03,0,6521359.story

A tiny URL;
http://tinyurl.com/djrk4h

Mike Ruggeri


Mike Ruggeri's The Casas Grandes World and the Turquoise Road
http://tinyurl.com/62wp8z



















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