Lost Languages:
the Enigma of the
World's Undeciphered Scripts
by Andrew Robinson
Posted on 07/18/2002 8:26:07 AM PDT by blam
Stained teapot reveals an ancient love of chocolate
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 18/07/2002)
A teapot has provided evidence that our love affair with chocolate began 1,000 years earlier than previously thought.
Archaeologists have shown that cocoa was cultivated in the land between the Americas - including what today is Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize - for thousands of years.
Now a study of brown stains on 2,600-year-old Mayan pottery from Belize has identified cocoa residues thought to have been left by ancient drinking chocolate.
The discovery, reported today in Nature, pushes back the earliest chemical evidence of cocoa use by about 1,000 years, according to Dr Jeffrey Hurst, a researcher at chocolate maker Hershey Foods of Hershey, Pennsylvania.
He analysed spouted vessels found at an archaeological site at Colha, in what is now northern Belize.
Dr Hurst and his team used a technique called high performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS) marking the first time this highly sensitive method has been applied to stained crockery, in this case what are thought to be chocolate pots.
Historical records written at the time of the Spanish conquests show that the Mayans and Aztecs used the teapot-like vessels to pour liquid chocolate.
The chocolate was poured from one vessel to another to produce a foam, which they considered the most desirable part of the drink. At the time of the conquests chocolate was consumed with most meals by native populations in Mexico and other parts of Central America.
But the sensitive chemical analysis techniques used by Dr Hurst's team found evidence of chocolate in much older vessels, dating back as far as 600BC.
Previously the earliest direct evidence of chocolate consumption came from 1,500-year-old ceramic vessels found in a Mayan tomb at Rio Azul in Guatemala.
"The presence of cacao (cocoa) in Maya spouted vessels at Colha indicates that its usage pre-dates evidence from Rio Azul by almost a millennium," said Dr Hurst. "Cacao wood charcoal dating to the same period has been found at several sites in the region, indicating that this part of northern Belize may have been one of the main production areas for cacao during this period."
Chocolate was a key part of elite Mayan culture, notably in weddings. "It was a drink consumed by people of substance," said Dr Hurst.
They're not talking about Bill Clinton, are they? I think I was reading the headline as "Stained Sexpot Reveals an Ancient Love of Chocolate".
Maybe that is where little Danny (last?) came from?
I don't know if that's sarcasm or not but I might consider suicide if we ran out of chocolate. I am a serious junky. I used to keep a big stack of chocolate bars (good ones- German- Lindt) by my bed, I'd wake up and first thing eat one and then just lay there and enjoy the little pleasure chemicals they say it makes. It got to be so habitual, I'd wake in the night and eat two or three little squares and continue sleeping without knowing that I had done this. I'm not overweight at all in case anybody wonders I can still wear my dress uniform from the Army with no ugly overhang.
Chocolate is probably one of the single best things about life as we know it- it's better than sex in some respects and not quite as messy. I would be willing to go to war with other countries to secure the flow of good chocolate to the West.
Sheez, now that I think about it, I'm running low- better get down to the store and stock up.
As a kid, I'd go into the pantry and eat my Mom's unsweetened chocolate for baking. THAT'S desparate, I tell ya.
Best of all, the link works. Open wide for Chunky.Cradle of Chocolate?[A]rchaeologists from Cornell University and the University of California at Berkeley have found evidence of a village that was continuously occupied from 2000 B.C. to A.D. 1000 as well as hints to the secret of the community's remarkable longevity.
Roger Segelken
Oct. 8, 1998
Cornell News Service
"My guess is, it all comes down to chocolate," says John S. Henderson, professor of anthropology at Cornell and co-director, together with Rosemary Joyce of Berkeley, of the archaeological dig at Puerto Escondido, Honduras. The type of ceremonial pottery uncovered by the archaeologists points to that region of Mesoamerica as a possible "Cradle of Chocolate."
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Lost Languages:
the Enigma of the
World's Undeciphered Scripts
by Andrew Robinson
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
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-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
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