Sunday, October 11, 2009

Old Chocolate


On February 3, 2009, evidence of 1000 year old chocolate was found in Pueblo Bonito, and was reported in Tuesday‘s issue of Proceedings of the Nation academy of Sciences by Patricia Crown of University of New Mexico and W. Jeffery Hurst of the Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition. The location of the chocolate indicates trade between the Chaco Canyon and the cacao growers in Central America. The people in Central America drank chocolate in rituals, but the full purpose of this is unknown. This chocolate that they drank was unsweetened and very bitter. Crown found pieces of ceramic from jars in Central America, so she decided to check if there was evidence of chocolate being stored in them. There was indeed evidence of this, theobromine, a bitter alkaloid of the cacao plant. "This illustrates the importance of collections in archaeology," Crown said, "that we can return to material with new techniques and find out new things. Every artifact has a story to tell." It is also believed that chocolate was used as a currency by the Aztec.


Alex J.
Period 5

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow, I can’t believe that they had chocolate back then. I think it’s pretty cool how things we have today were around so long ago.

linds_16 said...

Thats so cool, I wonder if it would still be edible.

linds_16 said...

wow how cool, I wonder if it would still be edible after that long.

danibox said...

Wow a thousand year old chocolate! This was very interesting to me that it has just been discover now and that nobody thought of checking out these sorts of things before this. I wonder what else is still out there?

LoganM said...

Wow, that is some old chocolate! I find it interesting that the Aztecs used chocolate as a currency. I also found it interesting that the people from Central America would drink the chocolate during rituals.

Brit said...

This is very interesting. It really helps give the history behind something that we as Americans have truly integrated into our lives. It was only consumed in liquid form in Central America. Additionally, it should be noted that the chocolate drink that was enjoyed by Central Americans wasn't nearly as innocent as it might first seem. According to the University of Pennsylvannia's Archeological and Anthropological department, the bean of the cacao plant was initially used by these Central American peoples as part of a fermented alcoholic beverage, which gave rise to the plants popularity. Later in the time of the Aztec and Maya the drink was seasoned with herbs, plants, and flowers. I wonder what caused chocolate to largely evolve away from liquid consumption?
-Brit H., Period 7

Kayce said...

My goodness, thats incredible that the chocolate didn't completely decompose over all of these years! Its very interesting how the chocolate itself was used for currency, i wonder what else was used for value in this culture.

Kayce said...

My goodness, thats incredible that the chocolate didn't completely decompose over all of these years! Its very interesting how the chocolate itself was used for currency, i wonder what else was used for value in this culture.

AngelaB said...

I would love some of that chocolate! It is so fascinating how this sweet delicacy was so useful and important to Central American and Aztec society and continues to be today as well. This is an awesome blog!