Clues to Cacao from the Ecuadorian Upper Amazon
Author(s): Sonia Zarrillo
Year: 2015
Summary
Genetic studies suggest a single domestication event for cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) in the Upper Amazon of southeastern Ecuador and northeastern Peru and then transported by humans northwards to Central America and Mexico. As such, we should expect to find the earliest archaeological evidence of cacao use in the tropical forests of South America. This paper presents starch granule evidence for the use of cacao dating to 3500-3300 Cal BC from the Santa Ana - La Florida site in the Upper Amazon of southeastern Ecuador.
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Cite this Record
Clues to Cacao from the Ecuadorian Upper Amazon. Sonia Zarrillo. Presented at The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, California. 2015 ( tDAR id: 394921)
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Keywords
General
Origin of Domestication
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Paleoethnobotany
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Theobroma cacao
Geographic Keywords
South America
Spatial Coverage
min long: -93.691; min lat: -56.945 ; max long: -31.113; max lat: 18.48 ;