Scientists have found traces of alkaloids cocoa in North American ceramic vessels of the eighth century. Work published in Journal of Archaeological Science.
The researchers did washings with pottery found in the parking lot 13 in Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Its age is about 1200 years parking refers to the 770 th year of our era. The resulting solutions were analyzed by liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry.
As a result, the authors were able to find traces of blood vessels in caffeine and theobromine alkaloids, characteristic of cocoa beans. According to scientists, the finding suggests that the population of North America had used the chocolate around 300 earlier than previously thought.
Cocoa is a typical tropical plants. To get on the territory of modern Utah, it was supposed to make their way into thousands of kilometers. If the findings of the study's authors are correct, it indicates the presence in the VIII century between Central and North America developed trade routes.
Some interviewees Science Experts wary of research findings. In their homeland cocoa drink was considered elite, and overcome a long way transportation to the north, its value may have increased many times over. As the population 13 parking was not particularly wealthy people, it is difficult to imagine that they could afford such a treat.
In connection with the improvement of methods of mass spectrometry, recently an increasing number of works based on the analysis of substances, absorbed in ceramics. Recently, another group of archaeologists by studying the Libyan pots age of about seven thousand years have found the earliest evidence of dairy cows in Africa.
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