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During the early 1960's, Richard MacNeish found evidence of early maize domestication in a cave in Tehuacan. In level XIII of Coxcatlan Cave, 18 cobs of a type of plant that appeared to be a form of maize were found. These cobs seemed to indicate the early stages of the transformation from teosinte, a native grass, to maize. There were 74 more cobs found in subsequent levels, ranging in age from 5000 to 3000 BC. Teosinte is an edible native grass that can either be popped as our popcorn is today, or ground and baked into coarse unleavened cakes when worked on a hot, flat, rock. Teosinte can easily be mutated into maize with 2 mutations; selection of a non-shattering rachis and selection of a soft fruitcase. Current studies at the University of Minnesota in gene mutations of teosinte have produced seeds from which maize can be harvested. The teosinte is treated with increasing concentrations of sulfate cupric in the moment of germination. Resources: Doebley, John: The Evolution of Maize: From QTLS to Genes Flannery, Kent: Anthropological Archeology in the Americas Beadle, George: The Mystery of Maize Flannery, Kent: A Productivity Study of Teosinte |
The domestication of maize in Tehuacan, Mexico was a gradual
process. Archaeologists still do not fully know how this process began.
Domestication can be highly productive but also very unstable because of its
low species diversity and its high level of human attention. Yet, it yielded
one of the most important food sources in the world today: maize.