Evidence of cacao use in the Prehispanic American Southwest

Self Cite

Chemical analyses of organic residues in fragments of pottery from 18 sites in the US Southwest and Mexican Northwest reveal combinations of methylxanthines (caffeine, theobromine, and theophylline) indicative of stimulant drinks, probably concocted using either cacao or holly leaves and twigs. The results cover a time period from around A.D. 750-1400, and a spatial distribution from southern Colorado to northern Chihuahua. As with populations located throughout much of North and South America, groups in the US Southwest and Mexican Northwest likely consumed stimulant drinks in communal, ritual gatherings. The results have implications for economic and social relations among North American populations.cacao | holly | US Southwest/Mexican Northwest | archaeology | ritual drinks

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 38%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ritual drinks in the pre-Hispanic US Southwest and Mexican Northwest

Crown

Hurst

et al. 2015

Self Cite

“…Although Chacoan exchange networks extended as far as Mesoamerica for prestige items (34,35), the procurement of basic, labor-intensive resources from multiple distant landscapes, with shifting dynamics of use, is a prominent feature of Chacoan society. Testing for similar patterns at other pre-Columbian and historic sites in North America would be a fruitful endeavor and is possible now because of a dense network of long tree-ring chronologies and the rich collection of archaeological wood material housed at the University of Arizona and National Park Service archives.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eleventh-century shift in timber procurement areas for the great houses of Chaco Canyon

Guiterman

Swetnam

Dean

2015

An enduring mystery from the great houses of Chaco Canyon is the origin of more than 240,000 construction timbers. We evaluate probable timber procurement areas for seven great houses by applying tree-ring width-based sourcing to a set of 170 timbers. To our knowledge, this is the first use of tree rings to assess timber origins in the southwestern United States. We found that the Chuska and Zuni Mountains (>75 km distant) were the most likely sources, accounting for 70% of timbers. Most notably, procurement areas changed through time. Before 1020 Common Era (CE) nearly all timbers originated from the Zunis (a previously unrecognized source), but by 1060 CE the Chuskas eclipsed the Zuni area in total wood imports. This shift occurred at the onset of Chaco florescence in the 11th century, a time with substantial expansion of existing great houses and the addition of seven new great houses in the Chaco Core area. It also coincides with the proliferation of Chuskan stone tools and pottery in the archaeological record of Chaco Canyon, further underscoring the link between land use and occupation in the Chuska area and the peak of great house construction. Our findings, based on the most temporally specific and replicated evidence of Chacoan resource procurement obtained to date, corroborate the long-standing but recently challenged interpretation that large numbers of timbers were harvested and transported from distant mountain ranges to build the great houses at Chaco Canyon.

“…Recent analysis of residues in the fragments of these vessels recovered from the Bonito trash mounds revealed that at least some of the vessels contained residues of cacao, suggesting that Chacoans drank a type of chocolate beverage (39). Such beverages were an important component of Mesoamerican rituals.…”

Section: Microcosm: Great-house Burial Complexmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hierarchy and social inequality in the American Southwest, A.D. 800–1200

Plog

Heitman²

2010

Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico has been the focus of much recent archaeological research on Pueblo groups who lived during the 9th through 12th centuries in the American Southwest. Here, we examine variation in mortuary patterns in the canyon, focusing in particular on one mortuary crypt, to address questions of social differentiation and the chronology of important sociopolitical processes. Based on new radiocarbon dates as well as reanalysis of the stratigraphy and spatial distribution of materials in the mortuary crypt, we conclude that significant social differentiation began in Chaco ca. 150-200 y earlier than suggested by previous research. We argue that social inequality was sanctified and legitimized by linking people to founders, ancestors, and cosmological forces.Chaco Canyon | archaeology | culture change | mortuary practice | cosmology