{
  "id": 3752319,
  "title": "Ancient DNA reveals cacao was consumed in present-day Georgia 1,000 years ago",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/27/ancient-dna-reveals-cacao-was-consumed-in-present-day-georgia-1-000",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-08-27T14:00:08.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Phys.org",
    "slug": "phys-org",
    "url": "https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ancient-dna-reveals-cacao-consumed.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "One of the world's favorite sweet treats, chocolate, may have been enjoyed in eastern North America much earlier than previously thought, about 1,000 years ago. New research published in the journal PLOS One suggests that people in the Mississippian city of Etowah were consuming cacao, the plant used to make chocolate, in the 11th and 12th centuries.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}