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.

Starch grains from dental calculus reveal ancient plant foodstuffs at Chenqimogou site, Gansu Province

“…Plants in our comparative collection include foxtail millet (Setaria italica), broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), rice (Oryza sativa), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), oat (Avena sativa), and maize (Zea mays). In addition, the morphology of buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), whitethorn (Crataegus pinnatifida), and so on are polygonal [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][19][20][21][22]. However, sizes of rice, oat, buckwheat, whitethorn, and others are all smaller than Group 1.…”

“…Genera include the grasses Panicum, Setaria, Lolium, and Aegilops, tree seeds of Quercus, Castanea, Corylus, and Juglans, as well as beans like Vigna (Figure 2). For starch identification, we also used description from many other studies of starch grain morphology [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]18].…”

“…(3) A 5% solution of sodium hexametaphosphate (Calgon) was added to each sample to deflocculate the calculus and ease dispersal, and then rinsed twice by using ultrapure water. (4) Starch was isolated using a solution of CsCl at a density of 1.3 and 1.8 g/cm 3 . (5) The recovered residue was mounted on a slide.…”

“…In the past decades, starch grain analysis has been successfully employed to study the origins and dispersals of agricultural crops, artifact function, and paleoclimate reconstruction in America, Australia, and other areas [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

Taphonomy at two contiguous coastal rockshelters in Panama: Preliminary observations focusing on fishing and curing fish

“…For example, the inhabitants of the Monagrillo site prepared maize, manioc and palm fruits with their abundant grinding stones (Piperno and Holst, 1998). An edge-ground cobble found at Zapotal produced pepper (Capsicum) starch (Perry et al, 2007).…”