by Playfuls Staff |
16th February 2007
Smithsonian researchers and colleagues report that across
the Americas, chili peppers (Capsicum species) were cultivated and traded as
early as 6,000 years ago—predating the [more] invention of pottery in some
areas of the Americas. The researchers analyzed starch grains to trace the
history of chili peppers in the
Americas.
Their findings contribute significantly to the current
understanding of ancient agricultural practices in the Americas. The
report is published in the Feb. 16 issue of the journal Science.
When Europeans arrived in the Americas,
chili peppers were among the most widespread of the plants domesticated in the New World. However, the chronology and precise geography
of their origins and early dispersals had been very poorly understood. Tropical
environments, where many chili varieties were first domesticated and then
incorporated into prehistoric farming systems, degrade most organic
archaeological remains, washing away and decomposing all but the most durable evidence
of ancient human activities. Lead author Linda Perry, of the Smithsonian's
National Museum of Natural History, and colleagues overcame this obstacle by
identifying chili pepper starch grains. The starch microfossils were found at
seven sites dating from 6,000 years ago to European contact and ranging from
the Bahamas to southern Peru.
The Smithsonian holds the most extensive reference
collection of microscopic plant remains available to archaeologists—starch,
pollen grains and microfossils called phytoliths. The team of researchers
adding to this collection discovered that starch grains from chili peppers,
members of the genus Capsicum, are shaped like red blood cells, with a strong,
central line or split on the side.
"Sorting through microscopic particles and finding a
type that distinguishes such an important plant group is like opening a window
to the past," Perry said. "While we once based our understanding of
chili peppers on rare sites with exceptionally good preservation, suddenly we
are able to gain incredible insight into ancient agriculture, trade and cuisine
by making these plants visible nearly everywhere they occurred."
Cultivated chili starch grains are discernible from those of
wild chilies. The remains of these domesticated chili peppers were often found
with corn, forming part of a major, ancient food complex that predates pottery
in some regions.
The oldest Capsicum starch grains were found in southwestern
Ecuador
at two sites dating to 6,100 years ago. The chili remains were associated with
previously identified corn, achira, arrowroot, leren, yuca, squash, beans and
palm fruit, adding to the picture of an early, complex agricultural system in
that region. Ecuador
is not considered to be the center of domestication for any of the five
domesticated chili species. A more ancient record of the domestication and
spread of chili peppers awaits investigators working in other regions where
wild chilies were first brought into cultivation.
In Panama,
chilies occurred with corn and domesticated yams that dated 5,600 years before
present (ybp). Chilies were found at a site occupied 4,000 ybp in the Peruvian
Andes, with microscopic remains of corn, arrowroot and possibly potato. In this
case, the chilies were identified as the species C. pubescens. The rocoto
pepper, a cultivar of this species, is still a staple in the Peruvian diet.
Newer sites in the Bahamas
(1,000 ybp) and in Venezuela
(500-1,000 ybp) also yielded remains of both corn and chilies.
"It's hard to imagine modern Latin American cuisine
without chili peppers," said co-author Dolores Piperno, Smithsonian
scientist at the National Museum of Natural History and at the Smithsonian
Tropical Research Institute in Panama.
"We demonstrate that prehistoric people from the Bahamas to Peru were using chilies in a
variety of foods a long time ago. The peppers would have enhanced the flavor of
early cultivars such as maize and manioc and may have contributed to their
rapid spread after they were domesticated."
