July 10, 2007 — Mexican cuisine as we know it today goes back at least 1,500 years, according to a new study that looked at 500-1,500 A.D. food preparation ingredients discovered in two Oaxacan caves.
Based on the evidence, the cave's residents had 122 dried and fresh chiles, along with corn, squash, beans, avocados, agaves, prickly pears, tropical zapote fruit, berries, wild onions and more at their culinary disposal.
Like a well-organized pantry, the chiles had pride of place just to the right of the entrance for one of the caves.
"Chiles may be an acquired taste for Europeans and Americans, but not for the Indians of Mexico," co-author Kent Flannery, an anthropologist at the University of Michigan, told Discovery News.
He added, "Especially in the early periods, when bland foods like prickly pear cactus, acorns, mesquite pods, etc. were relied upon, plants like chiles and wild onions put some zip into their diet."
Flannery and Smithsonian researcher Linda Perry analyzed the chile finds, which were unearthed at two dry rock shelter caves — Guilá Naquitz and Silvia's Cave, northwest of Mitla, Oaxaca. During prehistoric periods, the caves housed family groups, but they later became convenient places for hunters and planters to temporarily camp out.
The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers can distinguish wild from domesticated chiles based on seed size, fruit size and starch content. Based on these characteristics, the scientists determined the chiles were all domesticated cultivars, mostly from the species that today gives us jalapeño, Serrano and ancho peppers.
"A couple of the cultivars look quite a bit like Tabasco and cayenne peppers," Perry told Discovery News.
Old chiles excavated in other Mexican caves suggest peppers first were domesticated around 8,000 years ago, after gourds and squash were domesticated at 8,000 B.C. Wild beans were being collected at 6,000 B.C., then corn at 4,000 B.C. The first tortilla press dates to 500-300 B.C., well before the Oaxacan cave finds.
