July 19, 2002	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 8, 1423

PARIS: Mankind’s fondness for chocolate goes back 2,600 years, almost a thousand years earlier than previously known, according to minute scraps of cacao found in ancient pots in central America.

Using a new, ultra-sensitive technique to analyze residues in the earthenware vessels, scientists found theobromine — a compound only found locally in the cacao plant, Theobrama cacao.

The 14 pots, discovered at a Mayan burial site at Colha, northern Belize, have been dated to between 600 BC and 250 AD, they report said in ‘Nature’ said.

That means the history of chocolate is almost a millennium older than thought.

Pottery evidence from the later part of the Classic era of Central America (250-900 AD) has indicated that the Mayan civilization consumed liquid chocolate.

The first references to chocolate in recorded history started in the 16th century, when the Spanish conquistadors noted the Aztecs’ relish for a dark, sweet beverage unknown in Europe, and which often included honey, maize or chilli.—AFP