Chocolate has been providing a sugar high to humans for centuries, enough to inspire them to build monuments too.
asserted
Chocolate → provide → monuments
A new genetic analysis of pottery pieces near the Etowah Indian Mounds has revealed the earliest known traces of cacao east of the Mississippi River, according to Smithsonian Magazine, citing a study published in PLOS One on August 26.
uncertain
analysis → reveal → August
According to the study, the cacao beans reached Etowah by around the 11th century, citing new evidence of traces of the substance in North America.
uncertain
beans → accord → America
“This study presents the first evidence that cacao consumption was part of the Mississippian world at roughly the same time as it appeared at Chaco [Canyon],” the study reads.
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study → present → Chaco
“This discovery at Etowah asks us to broaden our understanding of the networks that distributed cacao throughout the Americas before European colonisation.”
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that → ask → colonisation
“The Indigenous world of the Southeast was an international world, where people were very connected,” said Adam King, an archaeologist at the University of South Carolina.
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King → say → Carolina
The artefacts that stored chocolate
The authors used mass spectrometry to detect four compounds known to be present in cacao: theobromine, theophylline, caffeine and paraxanthine
Sitting just northwest of Atlanta, Etowah hosts six earthen monuments created by Native Americans during the pre-Columbian Mississippian period.
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Etowah → store → period
According to King, the building of these structures was likely highly ritualised with the mounds possibly symbolising the planet.
uncertain
mounds → accord → planet
“They are actually re-enacting the creation of the Earth,” he said.
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he → - → Earth
By building or adding to the structure, the Mississippians were symbolically placing themselves within the cosmos.
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Mississippians → build → cosmos
After creating such mounds, the Mississippians likely celebrated the completion with a large feast.
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Mississippians → create → feast
In the 1950s, archaeologists found the remains of such a feast marking one of the earliest phases of mound building at Etowah, sometime between 1050 and 1150 C.E. The remnants, which included animal bones and pottery fragments, were discovered in a borrow pit.
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which → find → pit
After the Mississippians mined clay from these pits, they filled them back up with other dirt and trash—in this case, the remains of the feast.
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they → mine → feast
The archaeologists washed the pieces of pottery, known as sherds, and stored them for decades.
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archaeologists → wash → decades
But luckily, the artefacts retained some traces of what the vessels once contained.
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vessels → retain → what
In the study, researchers conducted ancient DNA analysis on three archaeological samples from Etowah, dating to 800 to 900 years ago.
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researchers → conduct → Etowah
King and his colleague Terry Powis, got permission from the Muscogee people who hold Etowah sacred, to analyse the residue from the bits of pottery.
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Etowah → get → pottery
The authors used mass spectrometry to detect four compounds known to be present in cacao: theobromine, theophylline, caffeine and paraxanthine, present in all 31 sherds they tested.
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they → use → sherds
Almost half of the Etowah samples contained at least two of the four diagnostic compounds.
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half → contain → compounds
After researchers subjected the three pottery fragments to ancient DNA analysis, they produced more than 502 million useful paired sequences, which they then filtered to identify genetic material specific to Theobroma cacao.
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they → subject → cacao
Samples from two pottery sherds showed that they “contained highly fragmented ancient Theobroma cacao DNA.”
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they → show → DNA
The researchers ensured that the study was carried out with extreme precision.
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study → ensure → precision
They assured, “the maximum precautions to avoid the contamination of the archaeological samples with modern cacao before and during all the steps of ancient DNA analyses.”
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They → assure → analyses
A journey to the East
Cacao, which produces beans that are fermented and roasted to create chocolate, originated in Mesoamerica.
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that → produce → Mesoamerica
Some of the earliest evidence of the plant's use in domestic life dates back to about 5,300 years ago in Ecuador.
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Some → date → Ecuador
By 1500 B.C.E., the Olmecs of southern Mexico were making fermented chocolate drinks.
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Olmecs → make → drinks
Cacao beans were even used as a currency by the Maya in the Classic Period, and in 1050 C.E., chocolate was widespread in the region, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
uncertain
chocolate → use → Magazine
However, only limited evidence from the time identified the presence of the substance in North America.
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evidence → identify → America
This study now reveals that the tasty beans reached Etowah somehow.
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beans → reveal → Etowah
A trader or traveller could have brought it there directly, King said, or it could have been traded from person to person until it arrived.
uncertain
it → bring → person
A few years ago, researchers found cacao residue in ceramic vessels in Pueblo Bonito, a Chaco Canyon site in New Mexico.
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researchers → find → Mexico
The Ancestral Puebloan society there used these vessels around the same time that people of the Mississippian culture used the ceramic pots with cacao residue in Etowah.
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people → use → Etowah
Follow-up analysis revealed more potential traces of cacao in other parts of the U.S. Southwest.
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analysis → follow → Southwest
It’s possible that the cacao beans used to make the chocolate drink consumed in Etowah came via trade from the Chaco Canyon.
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beans → ’ → Canyon
“There are continental-scale trade networks,” said Mills, who has studied ceramics in Chaco Canyon.
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who → be → Canyon
It’s also possible that the cacao was traded along the Gulf Coast, King said, or it may have come via the Caribbean and up through Florida.
uncertain
it → ’ → Florida
It’s difficult to say because not much evidence of Mesoamerican influence, other than the cultivation of maize, can be found in Etowah.
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evidence → ’ → Etowah
The vessels in which cacao was found at Etowah are different from Maya or Ancestral Puebloan vessels where chocolate was consumed ritually, so it’s difficult to say how they were used other than in the context of a feast.
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they → find → feast
The Etowah vessels are unique, created by stamping prints onto the pots using special paddles.
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vessels → create → paddles
“Those are some of the most intriguing designs that people have made in the Mississippi area,” Mills added.
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Mills → make → area
…and 4 more, not listed.
The Aporia
