There is currently some debate as to how many species of cacao (Theobroma spp) exist in the world, or ever did. Recognized varieties identified (and debated) include Theobroma cacao ssp. cacao (called Criollo and found throughout central America); T. cacao spp. sphaerocarpum (called Forastero and found in the northern Amazon basin); and a hybrid of the two called Trinitario. Recent genetic studies suggest that all forms of cacao are simply versions of Forastero. If true, cacao originated in the upper Amazon of Colombia and Ecuador and was brought to central America by human intervention. Ethnographic studies in the northern Amazon revealed that cacao use there was confined to the production of cacao chicha (beer) from the fruit, not from processing the beans.
The earliest known evidence for cacao use located outside of the Amazon basis is at Puerto Escondido, Honduras, about 1150 BC.
Chocolate Innovations
It seems clear that the innovation to plant and tend cacao trees is a Mesoamerican invention. Until recently, scholars believed that, because since the Maya word kakaw originates from the Olmec language, the Olmec must have been the progenitors of this delicious liquid. However, recent archaeological studies at Puerto Escondido in Honduras suggest that the original steps towards domestication of cacao happened before the rise of the Olmec civilization, when Honduras was in an active trade with the Soconusco region.
Archaeological sites with evidence for early chocolate domestication include Puerto Escondido (Honduras), Bat'sub Cave (Belize), Xunantunich (Guatemala), Rio Azul (Guatemala), Colha (Belize)
Sources
For more information on the importance of chocolate to Mesoamerican societies, see the article on Mesoamerican Cacao. A great source on the history of chocolate is at the Field Museum's website, All About Chocolate
Fowler, William R.Jr.1993 The living pay for the dead: Trade, exploitation, and social change in early colonial Isalco, El Salvador. In Ethnohistory and Archaeology: Approaches to Postcontact Change in the Americas. J. D. Rogers and Samuel M. Wilson, eds. Pp. 181-200. New York: Plenum Press.
Gasco, Janine 1992 Material culture and colonial Indian society in southern Mesoamerica: the view from coastal Chiapas, Mexico. Historical Archaeology 26(1):67-74.
Henderson, John S., et al. 2007 Chemical and archaeological evidence for the earliest cacao beverages. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Early Edition)
Joyce, Rosemary A. and John S. Henderson 2001 Beginnings of Village Life in Eastern Mesoamerica. Latin American Antiquity 12(1):5-23.
Joyce, Rosemary A. and John S. Henderson 2007 From Feasting to Cuisine: Implications of Archaeological Research in an Early Honduran Village. American Anthropologist 109(4):642–653.
LeCount, Lisa J. 2001 Like water for chocolate: Feasting and political ritual among the Late Classic Maya at Xunantunich, Belize. American Anthropologist 103(4):935-953.
McAnany, Patricia A. and Satoru Murata 2007 America's first connoisseurs of chocolate. Food and Foodways 15:7-30.
Motamayor, J. C., A. M. Risterucci, M. Heath, and C. Lanaud 2003 Cacao domestication II: Progenitor germplasm of the Trinitario cacao cultivar. Heredity 91:322–330.
Motamayor, J. C., et al. 2002 Cacao domestication I: the origin of the cacao cultivated by the Mayas. Heredity 89:380–386.
Norton, Marcy 2006 Tasting empire: Chocolate and the European internalization of Mesoamerican aesthetics. American Historical Review 111(2):660-691.
Prufer, Keith M. and W. J. Hurst 2007 Chocolate in the Underworld Space of Death: Cacao Seeds from an Early Classic Mortuary Cave. Ethnohistory 54(2):273-301.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
