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ReportsStarch Fossils and the Domestication and Dispersal of Chili Peppers (Capsicum spp. L.) in the Americas
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.
1 Archaeobiology Program, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Post Office Box 37012, Washington, DC 200137012, USA.
2 Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada. 3 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado Postal 084303092, Balboa, Republic of Panama. 4 Department of Anthropology, 107 Swallow Hall, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. 5 Center for American and World Cultures, 105 MacMillan Hall, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, USA. 6 Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, 120 Alumni Hall, Orono, ME 044695773, USA. 7 Department of Anthropology, Temple University, 1115 West Berks Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA. 8 Department of Anthropology, South Stevens 5773, University of Maine, Orono, ME 044695773, USA. 9 Centro de Antropología, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Carretera Panamericana, Kilometer 11, Altos de Pipe, Venezuela. 10 Departamento de Arqueología, Etnohistoria y Ecología Cultural, Escuela de Antropología, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas 1041, Venezuela. 11 Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)