900-Year-Old DNA Reveals Cacao Reached Ancient Georgia, Rewriting Chocolate’s History in North America

Nine centuries ago, people gathered at the Etowah Indian Mounds site in Georgia for feasts, and traces of ancient cacao DNA were found in two pieces of discarded pottery. The study, published in PLOS One, provides the first direct evidence that cacao reached the Mississippian civilization in the eastern US around 800–900 CE. The DNA analysis showed that the cacao, which cannot grow in Georgia, was transported across long distances. The findings suggest that pre-Columbian North America had extensive networks capable of moving exotic goods. The study also indicates that cacao may have traveled from Central America through long-distance exchange networks or through communities in the American Southwest before reaching the Eastern Woodlands.

• The pottery samples came from feasting deposits dating to the 11th and 12th centuries.
• Researchers analyzed residues from 31 Etowah pottery fragments.
• Two samples cleared the threshold for identifying cacao.
• The genetic material averaged 84 base pairs long, consistent with ancient DNA degradation.
• The study used strict contamination controls and bioinformatic filtering to distinguish cacao from other organisms.

The discovery raises the possibility that previously detected chemical residues at other Mississippian sites could contain cacao that was mistaken for locally available yaupon. The evidence does not establish exactly how cacao reached Georgia. Preliminary genetic comparisons linked one sample most closely to Amelonado cacao and another to Curaray, both of which also showed similarities to Marañon cacao. Those lineages originated in the Amazon basin, including parts of modern Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil, but also spread into Central America long before cacao appeared at Etowah. Cacao may have traveled from Central America through long-distance exchange networks or passed indirectly through communities in the American Southwest before reaching the Eastern Woodlands. However, too few genetic markers survived to pinpoint its immediate source, and researchers say no direct archaeological evidence currently establishes either route.

The discovery also suggests that cacao was more than an exotic luxury and could have played a role in ceremonies intended to reinforce social bonds during the city’s formative period. The findings ask us to reopen lines of research long closed, especially regarding contacts between the impressive civilizations of Central and South America and the great Mississippian civilization of the Eastern Woodlands. More broadly, our results suggest that it is time to explore the possibility that cacao was distributed more widely in the precontact Americas than we have understood.

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