Peppers Before Pottery

As someone who owns a t-shirt portraying the chemical composition of the capsaicin molecule, I found this article to be interesting. It describes how chili peppers were used in cooking here in the Americans as far back at 6,100 years ago.

How do you trace a pepper, which leaves no husk or other easily fossilized evidence? A dozen researchers at seven sites around Latin America kept finding microscopic starch grains on grindstones and cooking vessels and in trash heaps. Finally Perry identified these microfossils as residue from domesticated, not wild, chili species that in some spots even predated the invention of pottery.

I am pleased to know that my addiction prediliction for things spicy is an ancient one and that I'm keeping up a grand tradition.