Possible Images of Theobroma cacao in the Prehispanic American Southwest

Summary

The discovery of cacao residues in southwestern pottery raises questions about how much southwestern populations knew about Theobroma cacao. A number of possible images of cacao trees and pods suggest that some southwestern people were either familiar with the tree and the fruit that held cacao beans. Comparisons of Mesoamerican and southwestern imagery offer possible parallels in depiction of trees and fruit, and the southwestern material provides potential iconographic models that may be sought in other media.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage