Ancient Cuisine

New research strengthens the case that people used the chocolate ingredient cacao in South America 5,400 years ago, underscoring the seed’s radical transformation into today’s Twix bars and M&M candies. Tests indicate traces of cacao on artifacts from an archeological site in Ecuador, according to a study published Monday. That’s about 1,500 years older than

The Hittites were an Anatolian peoplewho played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia (around 1650 BC). The 4,000-year-old Hittite cuisine was cooked in Alacahöyük, an important Neolithic settlement and