ARCHAEOLOGY: Chocolate’s Deep History in Latin America

Presenting new findings about the early use of cacao throughout Latin America, Rosemary Joyce works through the fieldwork and testing that changed the accepted narrative about chocolate, cacao, and the origins of their use in the region's diet. New evidence based on pottery shurds initially pushed the first evidence of early use back 400 years to 1400 BCE, and even more recent work has shown evidence of cacao in Ecuador dating to 5,300 years ago.