Cacao in the Mississippian World: Archaeogenomic evidence for T. cacao consumption at the Etowah Site, Georgia

The discovery that people living at the great Ancestral Pueblo site of Chaco Canyon consumed cacao changed our understanding of the history of chocolate by demonstrating that networks moving cacao reached beyond Central and South America north at least into the American Southwest. Until now, clear evidence that people of the equally impressive Mississippian civilization east of the Mississippi River consumed chocolate has been lacking. This study presents the first evidence that cacao consumption was part of the Mississippian world at roughly the same time as it appeared at Chaco. We present evidence that samples from two Etowah Complicated Stamped pottery sherds recovered from 11th to 12th century contexts at the Etowah site in the modern state of Georgia contained highly fragmented ancient Theobroma cacao DNA. Etowah is an Indigenous city located in the modern US state of Georgia that, at its peak in the 14th century, was one of the most important centers in the Mississippian world. Two centuries before that peak, Etowah's inhabitants began construction of the site's first earthen platform mound, excavating earth and filling the borrow pits with feasting remains. Our evidence for cacao consumption comes from these early feasting contexts. This discovery at Etowah asks us to broaden our understanding of the networks that distributed cacao throughout the Americas before European colonization.