August 22, 2016
New Ancient Cacao Finds in Utah
Cacao originated in the Amazon and was being grown in Chiapas by 1900 BCE. In 2011, cacao residue was found on pottery from Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Then cacao was found on "Abajo Red on Orange" pottery in Utah in 2013. The pottery was tested to 780 CE. This adds to the story of extensive trade in cacao, scarlet macaws, pyrite mirrors, and turquoise, among other items, between Mesoamerica and the Southwest, which included repeated migrations. A new group of researchers are now testing pottery from areas near the site of the original cacao residues find in Utah. They have found mug bases, corrugated jar bases, white ware bowls and Abajo red-pon-orange pottery with cacao residue at three different sites within 10 miles of the original find, thus validating the original find.
Natural History Museum of Utah has the report here with nice photos;
https://nhmu.utah.edu/chocolate;
I have compiled for you a number of articles on Cacao in the Southwest here
Sweet Trading: Chocolate May Have Linked Prehistoric Civilizations
http://www.livescience.com/13533-prehistoric-chocolate-trade-cacao-chaco...
Prehistoric Americans Traded Chocolate for Turquoise?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110329-chocolate-turquoi...
Earliest Evidence of Chocolate in North America
http://news.sciencemag.org/2013/01/earliest-evidence-chocolate-north-ame...
Mystery of Ancient Pueblo Jars Is Solved
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/us/04cocoa.html
First Sign of Chocolate in Ancient U.S. Found
http://www.livescience.com/5293-sign-chocolate-ancient.html
All of this and more on the Aztlan World at;
Mike Ruggeri’s Aztlan World
http://mikeruggerisaztlanworld.tumblr.com
