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Article: Corn's slow path to stardom: archeologists rewrite the history of maize - and New World civilization. (Cover Story)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- April 17, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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From humble origins as a lowland tropical grass, corn developed into the western world's preeminent grain. Wherever this "gift of the gods" was introduced, it edged out native crops to become an indispensable part of the diet. Because its unparalleled yields allowed communities to grow far beyond what hunter-gatherers or nascent agriculture could feed, most archaeologists viewed corn as having largely fueled pre-Columbian growth --and civilization- throughout the Americas.
But new findings are drastically altering researchers' notions about the time frame over which that revolution occurred. Moreover, new dates for corns emergence from Mesoamerica do not support ...