The Archaeoethnobotany of Theobroma cacao in Mesoamerica

在美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的支持下，加州大学伯克利分校（UC Berkeley）的一个研究小组将在中美洲的原始种植区对可可植物（巧克力的天然来源）进行研究。该项目将开发一种方法来识别考古遗址中这种重要作物的证据，使研究人员能够判断不同的遗址在西班牙征服之前是否曾是生产中心。在罗斯玛丽·乔伊斯教授和克里斯汀·哈斯托夫教授的指导下，博士后研究员克尔斯滕·特里普利特博士将进行一项基线调查，在墨西哥、伯利兹和洪都拉斯地区寻找可可植物的例子，这些地区在公元16世纪被记录为重要的巧克力生产区。代表该物种本地种群的可可植物样本将被收集起来，用于美国的进一步研究。在哈斯托夫教授经营的一个专门研究古代植物遗迹的实验室里，特里普利特博士将探索在考古遗址中识别花粉、淀粉和其他可可植物部分的可能性。她将创建一个用于鉴定古代可可植物遗迹的参考数据库，该数据库将通过计算机访问。特里普利特博士将对这些参考资料进行测试，将其与从考古遗址中发现的植物遗骸进行比较，这些遗址被怀疑可可生产非常重要。由于可可豆在16世纪被用作该地区的一种货币，因此在考古遗址中发现可可豆将是了解阿兹特克人、玛雅人以及早期中美洲社会经济的关键一步。考古学家提出，可可的生产或贸易是许多不同遗址的一个因素，但直到现在，还没有系统的模型可以识别这种植物的遗迹。该项目将建立恢复和鉴定这种极其重要植物证据的程序。

With National Science Foundation support a team from UC Berkeley will conduct research on the cacao plant, the natural source of chocolate, in its original area of cultivation in Central America. The project will develop a means to identify evidence for this important crop in archaeological sites, allowing researchers to tell whether different sites were centers of production prior to the Spanish conquest. Under the direction of Professors Rosemary Joyce and Christine Hastorf, postdoctoral researcher Dr. Kirsten Tripplett will conduct a baseline survey seeking examples of cacao plants in areas of Mexico, Belize, and Honduras that were recorded as important chocolate producing regions in the sixteenth century AD. Samples of cacao plants representing native populations of the species will be collected for further research in the United States. In a specialized laboratory for the study of ancient plant remains operated by Professor Hastorf, Dr. Tripplett will explore the possibility of identifying pollen, starch, and other cacao plant parts in archaeological sites. She will create a reference database for the identification of ancient cacao plant remains, that will be made accessible by computer. Dr. Tripplett will test the reference collection by comparing it to plant remains recovered from archaeological sites where cacao production is suspected to have been important. Because cacao was used as a form of money in the region in the sixteenth century, identifying it in archaeological sites will be a critical step in understanding the economy of the Aztecs, Mayas, and earlier Mesoamerican societies. Archaeologists have proposed that production or trade of cacao was a factor in many different sites, but until now, no systematic model has allowed identification of remains of the plant. This project will establish procedures for recovering and identifying evidence of this critically important plant.