  We examine the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy for signatures of
early quintessence dark energy -- a non-negligible quintessence energy density
during the recombination and structure formation eras. In contrast to a
$\Lambda$CDM cosmology, early quintessence leads to a larger suppression of
structure growth. Because of this influence on the clustering of dark matter
and the baryon-photon fluid, we may expect to find trace signals in the CMB and
the mass fluctuation power spectrum. In detail, we demonstrate that suppressed
clustering power on small length-scales, as suggested by the combined Wilkinson
Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) / CMB / large scale structure data set, is
characteristic of early quintessence.
