The use and domestication of Theobroma cacao during the mid-Holocene in the upper Amazon

Sonia Zarrillo^{1

2}, Nilesh Gaikwad^{3

4}, Claire Lanaud^{5

6}, Terry Powis⁷, Christopher Viot^{5

6}, Isabelle Lesur^{8

9}, Olivier Fouet^{5

6}, Xavier Argout^{5

6}, Erwan Guichoux⁸, Franck Salin⁸, Rey Loor Solorzano¹⁰, Olivier Bouchez¹¹, Hélène Vignes^{5

6}, Patrick Severts¹², Julio Hurtado¹³, Alexandra Yepez¹³, Louis Grivetti¹⁴, Michael Blake¹⁵, Francisco Valdez¹⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
² Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
³ Department of Nutrition and Department of Environmental Toxicology, West Coast Metabolomics Center, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
⁴ Gaikwad Steroidomics Laboratory, Davis, CA, USA.
⁵ CIRAD, UMR AGAP, Montpellier, France.
⁶ AGAP, University Montpellier, CIRAD, INRA, Montpellier SupAgro, Montpellier, France.
⁷ Department of Geography and Anthropology, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA, USA.
⁸ INRA-UMR BIOGECO, Cestas, France.
⁹ HelixVenture, Mérignac, France.
¹⁰ Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria Estación Experimental Tropical Pichilingue, Quevedo, Provincia de Los Ríos, Ecuador.
¹¹ INRA, GeT-PlaGe, Genotoul, Castanet-Tolosan, France.
¹² New South Associates Inc., Stone Mountain, GA, USA.
¹³ Ministerio de Cultura y Patrimonio, Ecuador/IRD, Quito, Ecuador.
¹⁴ Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. tmblake@mail.ubc.ca.
¹⁶ Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UMR 208 PALOC, MNHN-IRD, Marseille, France.

PMID: 30374172
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0697-x

The use and domestication of Theobroma cacao during the mid-Holocene in the upper Amazon

Sonia Zarrillo et al. Nat Ecol Evol. 2018 Dec.

. 2018 Dec;2(12):1879-1888.

doi: 10.1038/s41559-018-0697-x. Epub 2018 Oct 29.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
² Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
³ Department of Nutrition and Department of Environmental Toxicology, West Coast Metabolomics Center, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
⁴ Gaikwad Steroidomics Laboratory, Davis, CA, USA.
⁵ CIRAD, UMR AGAP, Montpellier, France.
⁶ AGAP, University Montpellier, CIRAD, INRA, Montpellier SupAgro, Montpellier, France.
⁷ Department of Geography and Anthropology, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA, USA.
⁸ INRA-UMR BIOGECO, Cestas, France.
⁹ HelixVenture, Mérignac, France.
¹⁰ Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria Estación Experimental Tropical Pichilingue, Quevedo, Provincia de Los Ríos, Ecuador.
¹¹ INRA, GeT-PlaGe, Genotoul, Castanet-Tolosan, France.
¹² New South Associates Inc., Stone Mountain, GA, USA.
¹³ Ministerio de Cultura y Patrimonio, Ecuador/IRD, Quito, Ecuador.
¹⁴ Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. tmblake@mail.ubc.ca.
¹⁶ Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UMR 208 PALOC, MNHN-IRD, Marseille, France.

PMID: 30374172
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0697-x

Abstract

Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) is an important economic crop, yet studies of its domestication history and early uses are limited. Traditionally, cacao is thought to have been first domesticated in Mesoamerica. However, genomic research shows that T. cacao's greatest diversity is in the upper Amazon region of northwest South America, pointing to this region as its centre of origin. Here, we report cacao use identified by three independent lines of archaeological evidence-cacao starch grains, absorbed theobromine residues and ancient DNA-dating from approximately 5,300 years ago recovered from the Santa Ana-La Florida (SALF) site in southeast Ecuador. To our knowledge, these findings constitute the earliest evidence of T. cacao use in the Americas and the first unequivocal archaeological example of its pre-Columbian use in South America. They also reveal the upper Amazon region as the oldest centre of cacao domestication yet identified.

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Humans indulged a taste for chocolate a millennium earlier than realized.
[No authors listed] [No authors listed] Nature. 2018 Nov;563(7730):158. doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-07226-y. Nature. 2018. PMID: 30401846 No abstract available.

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The use and domestication of Theobroma cacao during the mid-Holocene in the upper Amazon

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The use and domestication of Theobroma cacao during the mid-Holocene in the upper Amazon

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