Ancient chocolate fans
Tuesday, 13 Nov 2007 16:03
A chocolate drinking vessel from Mesoamerica
Chocolate was an addictive food product 500 years earlier than previously thought, scientists have claimed today.
A team of US researchers base their hypothesis on studies of pottery vessels dating from about 1100 BC that were taken from sites in what is now Puerto Escondido, Honduras.
They discovered traces of the chemical compound theobromine, which occurs only in the cacao plant that is the source of chocolate.
Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers argue that this residue proves chocolate drinks were consumed in the vessels.
Although the chemical does not distinguish between the types of chocolate drink, the scientists say that due to changes in serving vessels the Mesoamerican chocolate drink was a byproduct of earlier fermented drinks.
Chocolate eventually became the standard economic value in the Aztec empire.
Due to the shape of the vessels studied, the researchers argue that they would have been used for serving and drinking chocolate drinks in ceremonies that took place at births, marriages and other social occasions.
"The findings of this study take us near the time of the probable initial use of cacao in Mesoamerica. The findings establish the lower Ulua Valley, far from the previously hypothesised centres of original cacao cultivation and use, as the earliest identified location of cacao consumption in the world," the researchers conclude.
"The results of this project trace a previously unsuspected time depth and complexity in the history of one of the major luxury commodities in the world today."