Chili Peppers Ruled Mexican Cuisine in A.D. 500 Just as They Do Now

The Smithsonian Institute says in a press release that new archaeological evidence discloses the culinary habits of Pre-Columbian inhabitants of southern Mexico: They liked it hot and spicy!

The object of excavating two caves in southern Mexico above the Mitla river valley, plant remains were found by a research team funded by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Ten different cultivars (cultivated varieties) of chili peppers were found among the well-preserved plant remains.

Linda Perry, the lead archaeologist, said that it is uncertain whether the chili peppers correspond to modern varieties, or whether they were types that died out after the arrival of Europeans. While the connection to modern varieties cannot be determined without genetic analysis, Perry said that one of the ten varieties found in Guila Naquitz looks to her like a Tabasco pepper and another found in Silvia's Cave looks like a cayenne pepper.

Perry said, "It shows us that ancient Mexican food was very much like it is today." Perry and Kent V. Flannery of the University of Michigan were able to determine that the dwellers living in the caves, called Guila Naquitz and Silvia's Cave, were using "the peppers both dried and fresh." They were able to make this subtle distinction because chilies that are broken while fresh, as opposed to while dried, have a recognizable breakage pattern.

Perry further said, "They would have used fresh peppers in salsas or in immediate preparation, and they would have used the dried peppers to toss into stews or to grind up into sauces like moles [e.g., enchilada sauce]."

The cave Guila Naquitz has yielded many well-preserved plant remains, some of which date back approximately 10,000 years to the beginning of squash cultivation in Mexico. Guila Naquitz and Silvia's Cave are both dry rock shelters near Mitla in the Valley of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Dry, arid conditions in the area throughout the centuries have prevented decay of crop remains. Preserved crop remains include corn, squash, beans, avocados and chili peppers.

Seven cultivars were recovered from Guila Naquitz and three cultivars were found in Silvia's Cave. Perry said, "It reveals a great antiquity for the Mexican cuisine that we're familiar with today."

Perry and Flannery focused their attention on two upper layers of ash known as Zones "A" and "Super-A". The time span designated by these Zones is circa A. D. 500 - 1500. Part of their research effort was focused on distinguishing different cultivars among the chili pepper remains, which is an analysis not before completed on ancient Mexican chilies.

Perry said, "You don't grow seven different kinds of chili unless you're cooking some pretty interesting food." She also said that the cave deposits give documentation to the "sophistication of the agriculture and the cuisine" of the Zpotec-speaking Mitla farmers who used the caves as temporary camps and for storage areas.

Mitla was a major town on the Mitla river and the agricultural fields evidently extended from the river bottom up to the piedmont (land gently sloping up from river flat-land to the base of a mountain range) below Guila Naquitz and Silvia's Cave. They thus farmed crops in several environmental zones: river bottom, piedmont and mountain. This diversity of zones would buffer risk and would expand variety of crops adding to healthful variety in diet, which are probably the reasons the Mitla farmers used several environmental zones for farming.

To conclude with another of Perry's remarks: "This analysis demonstrates that chilies in Mexican food have been numerous and complex for a long period of time." The study will be published the week of July 9 in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (available with subscription).

Smithsonian press release, "Ancient Americans liked it hot -- Smithsonian study traces Mexican cuisine roots to 1,500 years ago." Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. URL: http://www.eurekalert.org/bysubject/archaeology.php