Cacao Exchange and Use in the Prehispanic American Southwest

前西班牙裔美国西南部的可可交换和使用

• 批准号: 1012438
• 负责人: Patricia Crown
• 金额: $ 5.82万
• 依托单位: University of New Mexico
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-08-01 至 2013-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1012438&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Cacao; Exchange; Use; Prehispanic; American

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Patricia Crown and Dr. Jeffrey Hurst will characterize the temporal and spatial extent of cacao (chocolate) use and the nature of cacao exchange networks in the American Southwest. Recent research revealed the presence of cacao residues in ceramics from refuse deposits at Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, dated to A.D. 1000-1125. This finding demonstrates the presence of cacao, a tropical product, in the American Southwest. However, knowledge of cacao use in this region is limited by the fact that only five sherds from one site have been analyzed, with cacao recovered from three of those. Cacao may have been widely traded beyond Pueblo Bonito, particularly in conjunction with the exchange in Scarlet Macaws, another tropical species known to be widely present in the Southwest from A.D. Cacao may have been present earlier and later than the Pueblo Bonito materials.To determine the extent of cacao use and the nature of cacao exchange networks in the American Southwest, pottery from other sites and other time periods will be tested for cacao residues. To understand how cacao was consumed, testing will also be completed for additives traditionally used in Mesoamerican cacao drinks, such as honey. Decisions about which areas to test will follow three assumptions. First, to get to Chaco, exchange from Mesoamerica likely followed routes either through southwestern New Mexico, southern Arizona, or up the Rio Grande. Second, exchange in cacao likely accompanied exchange in macaws, because these biological species came from the same tropical environments, so pottery from sites with macaws will be given priority in sampling. Finally, because cacao consumption elsewhere in the New World always involved special vessel shapes, testing will focus on special vessel forms that likely functioned as drinking vessels for each area. High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry will be used to test for the presence of theobromine, a biomarker for Theobroma cacao in the paste of the pottery. For samples with evidence for theobromine, additional testing will be conducted to identify any other components of the cacao beverage. The analysis will be conducted at the Core Facility, MS Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania. The intellectual merit of the research includes assessing the prehispanic distribution of cacao in the American Southwest, furthering knowledge of exchange relationships between the Southwest and Mesoamerica, and evaluating how widespread cacao use might have been in ritual activities in the Southwest. The research will create interdisciplinary interaction between the University of New Mexico, the Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition, the MS Hershey Medical Center, and several museums contributing sherds to this research. The results will be widely disseminated in the popular press and scholarly publications. Previous research on this topic received extensive media attention.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，帕特里夏·克朗博士和杰弗里·赫斯特博士将描述可可（巧克力）使用的时空范围以及美国西南部可可交换网络的性质。 最近的研究表明，在新墨西哥州查科峡谷的普韦布洛博尼托的垃圾沉积物中，存在可可残留物，其年代可追溯到公元1000-1125年。 这一发现证明了可可，一种热带产品，在美国西南部的存在。 然而，对该地区可可使用情况的了解有限，因为只有一个地点的五块碎片被分析，其中三块的可可被回收。 可可豆可能在普韦布洛博尼托以外的地方被广泛交易，特别是与猩红金刚鹦鹉的交易有关，猩红金刚鹦鹉是另一种已知的热带物种，从公元1930年开始广泛存在于西南部。 可可可能比普韦布洛博尼托材料更早和更晚出现。为了确定可可使用的程度和美国西南部可可交换网络的性质，将对其他地点和其他时间段的陶器进行可可残留物测试。 为了了解可可是如何被消费的，还将对中美洲可可饮料中传统使用的添加剂进行测试，如蜂蜜。 关于测试哪些领域的决定将遵循三个假设。首先，为了到达查科，来自中美洲的交换可能沿着新墨西哥州西南部、亚利桑那州南部或格兰德河上游的路线进行。 第二，可可的交换可能伴随着金刚鹦鹉的交换，因为这些生物物种来自相同的热带环境，所以从金刚鹦鹉遗址中采集的陶器将优先取样。 最后，由于新世界其他地方的可可消费总是涉及特殊的容器形状，因此测试将集中在可能用作每个地区饮用容器的特殊容器形式上。 高效液相色谱-质谱法将用于测试可可碱的存在，可可碱是陶器糊中可可的生物标志物。 对于有可可碱证据的样品，将进行额外的测试，以确定可可饮料的任何其他成分。 分析将在核心机构MS Hershey Medical Center（Hershey，Pennsylvania）进行。 这项研究的学术价值包括评估可可在美国西南部的前西班牙裔分布，进一步了解西南部和中美洲之间的交换关系，并评估可可在西南部的仪式活动中的广泛使用。 这项研究将在新墨西哥州大学、好时健康与营养中心、MS好时医疗中心和几个为这项研究提供碎片的博物馆之间建立跨学科的互动。 调查结果将在大众报刊和学术出版物上广泛传播。 此前关于这一主题的研究受到了媒体的广泛关注。