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Ceramic Evidence for the Prehistoric Distribution of Maize In Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Mary Eubanks Dunn
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Abstract

This archaeological and botanical study of maize (Zea mays) represented on Zapotec funerary urns is relevant to studies of the development and spread of prehistoric cultures, and of the evolution of maize agriculture. In the Valley of Oaxaca, circa A.D. 600-1200, the Zapotecs attached models of actual ears of maize to their ceramic funerary urns. The high frequency of the depiction of Nal Tel on the urns suggests that Nal Tel had important symbolic associations for the Zapotecs. It was found that the races Chapalote, Harinoso de Ocho, and a type of dent com had a much wider geographical distribution in Precolumbian times than they do today.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , July 1975 , pp. 305 - 314
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1975

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