Updated on Saturday, March 10, 2007, 00:00 IST

Washington, Mar 10: An international team has traced the long history of chilli pepper and found that the spices were domesticated by indigenous Latin Americans around 6,000 years ago.

They say in some places, the chilli peppers were used as a condiment with maize even before the invention of pottery.

The team led by Dr Linda Perry of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History made the discovery. By analysing tiny starch fossils recovered from grinding stones, sediments and charred ceramic cookware from seven archaeological sites ranging from the Bahamas to Peru.

The researchers also identified starch grains from maize mixed with the chilli starch grains. The oldest site examined was in Ecuador and dates back to 6,100 years.

These Ecuadorian sites represent the earliest known village sites in the Americas, and were excavated by a team led by Dr Scott Raymond of the University of Calgary.

"Until quite recently it's been assumed that the ancestors of the great highland civilizations, like the Inca and the Aztecs, were responsible for most of the cultural and agricultural advances of the region," says Raymond.

"We now have evidence that the indigenous people from tropical, lowland areas deserve credit for the domestication of the chilli pepper,“ he added.

Early Latin American peoples would have found chilli peppers, which are rich in vitamin C, to be an excellent complement to fish and starchier foods like maize, beans, yams and corn.

"It's also an excellent disguiser. If something's not tasting quite right, you can always throw a few chillies in the pot," said Raymond.

Christopher Columbus brought the chilli pepper to Europe after his discovery of the Americas and it quickly became a favoured condiment across the globe.

The study can be found in the February 16 issue of Science journal.

Bureau Report with ANI inputs