IIRC, there was a documentary on TV about some researchers who had found traces of what they said was cocaine in ancient Egyptian mummies (this by spectrograph, I think). They believed this indicated that there was some ancient trade route of somekind between the Americas and Egypt. Perhaps the chiles traveled with those leaves. There were other researchers disputing this, of course. For Myron: Show me someone in denial ... and I'll show you a person in Egypt up to their ankles. Deb in Houston