Exploring Cacao Consumption at 12th Century Etowah
with Adam King, PhD
Research Professor and Director of the SC Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology
University of South Carolina
Research Professor and Director of the SC Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology University of South Carolina
and Terry G. Powis, PhD
Department of Geography and Anthropology
Kennesaw State University
Department of Geography and Anthropology Kennesaw State University
Recent DNA evidence shows that the inhabitants of the Indigenous city of Etowah, located in present day Georgia, consumed cacao. Cacao, known as the drink of kings among the ancient Maya and Mexica of Central America, does not grow in Georgia, but was brought to Etowah from tropical regions. While in the 14th century, Etowah was the Atlanta of its time, in the 12th century it was a newly established town.
The appearance of cacao at Etowah raises some important questions about continental scale interaction networks, the impact of Mesoamerican civilizations on the development of Mississippian societies, and how and why cacao traveled to northern Georgia and became part of the foundation of one of the Deep South’s most important Indigenous cities.
In this presentation we will place the appearance of cacao within the broader history of the Etowah site and the Mississippian (900-16—CE) Southeast. We will also discuss the context in which the evidence for cacao consumption took place at Etowah and what that might tell us about what its meaning there. One of the most intriguing questions raised by this research is how cacao made its way to northern Georgia. We will discuss the possible routes cacao may have traveled and why Etowah’s inhabitants adopted cacao. Finally, we will discuss our plans to continue the various threads of this research.
Adam King is a Research Professor and Director of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of South Carolina. He is an archaeologist and iconographer who conducts research with Mississippian period (900-1600CE) societies in the southeast as well as in the Maya Lowlands of Belize. His research combines traditional archaeological methods with remote sensing, absorbed residue studies, and iconography to understand the history Indigenous spaces like the Etowah site in northern Georgia and the Pacbitun site in the Belize River Valley of Belize.
Terry Powis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Anthropology at Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia. He is an archaeologist who conducts research both in the Maya Lowlands of Belize, Central America, and the Southeastern United States. Dr. Powis specializes in pottery, diet and subsistence, architecture, and the evolution of complex societies. His recent research has focused on the Middle Preclassic occupation of the Pacbitun site in Belize and origin of chocolate, vanilla, chili peppers, and Datura in the New World.