Researchers found that chili peppers (Capsicum) were cultivated as early as 6,000 years ago with the invention of pottery in some areas of the Americas.

 When Europeans invaded in the Americas, chili peppers were among the most widespread of the plants domesticated in the New World. However, the chronology and precise geography of their origins and early dispersals had been very poorly understood.

Tropical environments, where many chili varieties were first domesticated and then integrated into prehistoric farming systems, degrade most organic archaeological remains, washing away and decomposing all but the most durable evidence of ancient human activities. Sorting through microscopic particles and finding a type that distinguishes such an important plant group is almost opening a window to the past.

Cultivated chili starch grains are discernible from those of wild chilies. The remains of these domesticated chili peppers were often found with corn, forming part of a major, ancient food complex that predates pottery in some regions.