A study published in the scientific journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, led by Michael Blake, a scientist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, suggests that cacao began to be cultivated 1,500 years earlier than previously thought. And it was not in Central America but in South America. In other words, the scientists concluded that Theobroma cacao (the scientific name of the cacao plant) was already in use in South America 5,300 years ago.
The scientists examined ceramic artefacts at the Santa Ana-La Florida archaeological site, a village and well-preserved ceremonial center that was part of the Mayo-Chinchipe culture of the Andes, and found abundant evidence of cacao use, which is used for the production of chocolate.
“These findings suggest that the Mayo-Chinchipe people domesticated Theobroma cacao at least 1,500 years before the culture spread to Central America. As some of the Santa Ana-La Florida artifacts have links to the Pacific coast, the authors propose that the trade of goods, including culturally important plants, could have initiated the journey of cacao northward,” the article states. Thus, this new route establishes that chocolate “was born” in the upper Amazon, having been negotiated or transported to northern Colombia before reaching Central America and Mexico.
“As far as we know, these findings constitute the oldest evidence of the use of T. cacao in the Americas and the first unequivocal archaeological example of its pre-Columbian use in South America,” the authors conclude.
