<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/a7db34ce-ff53-4922-9664-34652db308f1/761F4DAD-58A0-42B1-8B1E-CD6D346C6809/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.livescience.com/history/071112-early-chocolate.html" href="http://www.livescience.com/history/071112-early-chocolate.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.livescience.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/history/071112-early-chocolate.html"><P class="article">By <A href="http://www.livescience.com/php/contactus/author.php?r=at">Andrea Thompson</A>, LiveScience Staff Writer</p> <P class="article">posted: 12 November 2007 05:05 pm ET</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/history/071112-early-chocolate.html"><P> Long before the Aztecs and other early Americans introduced chocolate to the world,  ancient civilizations used cacao, the source of chocolate, to make a completely different tasty treat. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/history/071112-early-chocolate.html"><P> Cacao beans, which come from the football-shaped pods of the <A href="http://www.livescience.com/imageoftheday/siod_070214.html">cacao tree</A>, have been used to make cocoa and chocolate for well over a thousand years. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/history/071112-early-chocolate.html"><P> While excavating a site in what is now Puerto Escondido, Honduras, researchers recently found pottery shards bearing residues of theobromine, a chemical compound with properties similar to caffeine and that is found only in the cacao plant. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/history/071112-early-chocolate.html">carefully decorated bowls, <A href="http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=071112-cacao-jug-02.jpg&cap=Bodega+Brown+bottle+from+northern+Honduras%2C+similar+to+one+of+the+.+The+bottle+is+from+the+collection+of+the+Instituto+Honduren%CB%9C+o+de+Antropolog%C4%B1%C2%B4a+e+Historia%2C+Museo+de+San+Pedro+Sula%2C+Honduras.+Image+courtesy+of+PNAS%2FNational+Academy+of+Sciences+%28Copyright+2007%29.&title=The+Dawn+of+Chocolate+Discovered&title=The%20Dawn%20of%20Chocolate%20Discovered">jars and bottles</A>, date from between 1100 to 900 B.C. and 1400 to 1100 B.C., extending the known use of cacao 500 years further into the past.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/history/071112-early-chocolate.html">the drink used by these earlier Mesoamerican communities was fermented from the <A href="http://www.livescience.com/imageoftheday/siod_051018.html">fruity white pulp</A> that surrounds the seeds in the pod, called chicha, </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/history/071112-early-chocolate.html">an unusual</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/history/071112-early-chocolate.html">sweet taste</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/761F4DAD-58A0-42B1-8B1E-CD6D346C6809/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

New from the makers of Clipmarks:  Amplify.com - Don't just share the news...Amplify it!