Cacao usage by the earliest Maya civilization

Abstract

The Maya archaeological site at Colha in northern Belize, Central America, has yielded several spouted ceramic vessels that contain residues from the preparation of food and beverages. Here we analyse dry residue samples by using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to atmospheric-pressure chemical-ionization mass spectrometry, and show that chocolate (Theobroma cacao) was consumed by the Preclassic Maya as early as 600 bc, pushing back the earliest chemical evidence of cacao use by some 1,000 years. Our application of this new and highly sensitive analytical technique could be extended to the identification of other ancient foods and beverages.

Chemical and archaeological evidence for the earliest cacao beverages

“…2), confirms the earliest previous evidence of cacao use in the Middle Formative period (7,8). A radiocarbon sample from the same excavation context has an intercept at 380 calibrated years (cal) B.C.…”

“…Chemical analysis of residues extracted from pottery vessels from the lower Ulúa Valley in northern Honduras demonstrates that cacao beverages were consumed there at least as early as 1100 B.C., some 500 years earlier than previously documented (7,8). The chemical evidence does not distinguish between a beverage made from the cacao seeds and chicha made from the pulp, but we argue, on the basis of changes in serving vessels, that the distinctive Mesoamerican chocolate drink was a byproduct of earlier fermented drinks.…”

“…Cultivation, domestication, and chocolate processing were Mesoamerican innovations, and fermented cacao chichas were also produced there. Cacao use in Mesoamerica can be tracked back into precolumbian times through depictions, texts, and residues of actual beverages (2,(5)(6)(7)(8).…”

“…Theobromine, a chemical component limited in Central America to Theobroma spp, has been identified elsewhere in visible residues preserved inside intact pottery vessels of the Classic (mid-1st millennium A.D.) and Middle Formative periods (mid-1st millennium B.C.) (5)(6)(7)(8).…”

Evidence of cacao use in the Prehispanic American Southwest

“…Theobromine is used as a marker of cacao in organic residues studies of ceramics from Mesoamerica because T. cacao is the only Mesoamerican plant that contains theobromine as the primary methylxanthine. HPLC coupled to MS has previously revealed cacao residues in ceramics vessels from sites in Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras (10)(11)(12)(13)(14).…”