Starch fossils and the domestication and dispersal of chili peppers (Capsicum spp. L.) in the Americas.

abstract

• Chili peppers (Capsicum spp.) are widely cultivated food plants that arose in the Americas and are now incorporated into cuisines worldwide. Here, we report a genus-specific starch morphotype that provides a means to identify chili peppers from archaeological contexts and trace both their domestication and dispersal. These starch microfossils have been found at seven sites dating from 6000 years before present to European contact and ranging from the Bahamas to southern Peru. The starch grain assemblages demonstrate that maize and chilies occurred together as an ancient and widespread Neotropical plant food complex that predates pottery in some regions.

authors

• Rademaker, Kurt

published proceedings

• Science

author list (cited authors)

• Perry, L., Dickau, R., Zarrillo, S., Holst, I., Pearsall, D. M., Piperno, D. R., ... Zeidler, J. A.

complete list of authors

• Perry, Linda||Dickau, Ruth||Zarrillo, Sonia||Holst, Irene||Pearsall, Deborah M||Piperno, Dolores R||Berman, Mary Jane||Cooke, Richard G||Rademaker, Kurt||Ranere, Anthony J||Raymond, J Scott||Sandweiss, Daniel H||Scaramelli, Franz||Tarble, Kay||Zeidler, James A

publication date

• February 2007

publisher

• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)  Publisher

published in

• Science  Journal

keywords

• Agriculture
• Archaeology
• Capsicum
• Fossils
• History, 15th Century
• History, Ancient
• Humans
• South America
• Spices
• Starch

PubMed Central ID

• 17303753

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1126/science.1136914

start page

• 986

end page

• 988

volume

• 315

issue

• 5814

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1136914