Ancient humans domesticated
chilli peppers more than 6,100 years ago, according to newly gathered archaeological evidence, which makes them one of the oldest crops cultivation by man. This means that in some region even predates pottery. The chilli is a realitavely
recent addition to cuisine in most of the world. Before Christopher Columbus''s voyages in late 15th century, the spicy peppers of the genus Capsicum were limited to the Americas. Clearly, chilli peppers had been around long before Columbus discovered their heat on his travels to America.In fact, he confused the chilli
papper with the papper he was hoping to find in India, for which he set sail and discovered America instead. Chilli pepper, however, has no relation to the black pepper, known as piper nigrum, in search of which Columbus made his long voyage. chilli
Pepper came to India only in 15th century AD, brought in by Portuguese sailors.
The antiquity of cilli peepers came to light when Linda Perry of the Smithsonian National museum of Natural history in washingtonm, D.C. and her colleagues analysed
starch grain microfossils preserved on cookware and stone tools from verious archaeological sities in the Americas, and found some grain identical to those product by modern domesticated peppers - showing that the ancient humans not only cultivated staple crops such as
maize and yam, but also framed for flavour . The researchers collected the starch grain microfossils from seven sites dating grom 6,000 years before present, and ranging from the Bahamas to southern peru. According to the researchers the starch grain assemblages demonstrate that maize and chillies were cultivated together as an ancient and widespread food complex.
More abstracts about the Chilli Cultivation older than pottery