Cacao was first used not in Mexico but in Ecuador, 5,300 years ago. The South American Mayo-Chinchipe culture domesticated it, and only later did it reach Mesoamerica, the Olmecs and the Maya.

3300 BC

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• Rise of Olmec San Lorenzoc. 1200 BC · San Lorenzo. On the Gulf Coast of Mexico, San Lorenzo became the first great Olmec centre, famed for its colossal stone heads. The Olmecs are often called the 'mother culture' of later Mesoamerican civilisations.

33rd century BC

More amazing facts

• 3300 BC · 3200 BC Ötzi died in the Alps around 3300 BC, about when writing appeared in Sumerian Uruk.
• 3300 BC · 1902 Malta's underground temple was found by builders, who at first tried to hide it. In 1902 workers cutting cisterns for new houses broke through the roof of the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, later found to hold the remains of some 7,000 people.
• 3300 BC Ötzi, who died in the Alps 5,300 years ago, has 61 tattoos.
• 3300 BC Ötzi's last meal is known down to its ingredients.
• 3300 BC · 3200 BC While the Sumerians were inventing writing, people in China were building dams.
• 3200 BC Possibly the first personal name ever written belongs not to a king but to an accountant.

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