Chili pepper (Capsicum spp. L.) origins have been difficult to determine until recently, because the macro-remains of the plant are only preserved archaeologically quite rarely. Fruits, seeds or pollen have been found at sites in the Tehuacan Valley beginning about 6000 years ago; at Huaca Prieta in Peru by ca. 4000 years ago, at Ceren, El Salvador by 1400 years ago; and in La Tigra, Venezuela by 1000 years ago.
The domesticated version of chili pepper has larger fruits than the wild versions; but even so there are at least 25 separate species in the family of American chili peppers. Similarities in the chilies lead researchers to believe there were at least two distinct events of domestication: one in South America, specifically southern Brazil to Bolivia; and a second one in Central America and Mexico.
Recently, the study of starch grains, which do preserve well and are identifiable to species, has allowed scientists to peg the domestication of chili peppers to at least 6,100 years ago, in southwestern Ecuador at the sites of Loma Alta and Loma Real. As reported in Science in 2007, the earliest discovery of chili pepper starches is from the surfaces of milling stones and in cooking vessels as well as in sediment samples, and in conjunction with microfossil evidence of arrowroot, maize, leren, manioc, squash, beans and palms.
Sources
Eshbaugh, W. Hardy. 1993. Peppers: History and Exploitation of a Serendipitous New Crop Discovery. pages 132-139. In: J. Janick and J.E. Simon (eds.), New Crops Wiley, New York.
Perry, Linda et al. 2007 Starch Fossils and the Domestication and Dispersal of Chili Peppers (Capsicum spp. L.) in the Americas. Science 315:986-988.
Pickersgill, Barbara 1969 The archaeological record of chili peppers (Capsicum spp.)and the sequence of plant domestication in Peru. American Antiquity 34:54-61.
This article on the domestication of chili peppers is part of the About.com Guide to Plant Domestications, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
