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Re: Maize origins [was re: "Corn" in medieval Europe]
In article <hmccullo.36.32FA0021@ecolan.sbs.ohio-state.edu>,
hmccullo@ecolan.sbs.ohio-state.edu (Hu McCulloch) wrote:
many things that I rather have the reader find.
This "maize in India" thing has spurred some very long threads [look in
archives for "maize in ancient india" or "Ad Yurii Gloriam (Was Re: maize in
ancient india: strong" in the subject lines], especially in the
sci.arch.mesoamerican newsgroup.. Everything originated as one more shot of a
poster that desperately wants (for reasons never forwraded) to show that
post-Pleistocene/pre-Columbian contact occurred. He (not Mr McCulloch, who
seems enthused mainly by the so-called maize ears of the Indian deities) has
been posting about gourds, chickens, sweet potatoes, linguistics, coconuts,
squash, and other apparent indicators of contact coming from one book
dedicated to post-Pleistocene/pre-Columbian contact:
Riley, Kelley, Pennington, Rands (editors): _Man Accross the Sea_, University
of Texas, 1971
Later one, this untiring person found a rapidly fizzling smoking gun in the
following article:
Carl L. Johannessen and Anne Z. Parker, MAIZE EARS SCULPTURED IN
12TH AND 13TH CENTURY A.D. INDIA AS INDICATORS OF PRE-COLUMBIAN
DIFFUSION, in Economic Botany, 1989, 43 (2): 164-180.
which is the article that Mr McCulloch likes so much. I have nothing to add
to my former post: those "ears" are subject to interpretation, and different
people seem to see different things. Period.
Other references on the maize subject (originally provided by myself to said
threads; check the dates to see the sequence; Johannessen himself has
apparently never responded to his critics):
Johannessen 1988 "Indian maize in the twelfth century B.C." Nature 332:587
(note that the date was worng: should have said A.D.) [This is a letter that
began everything]
Payak and Sachan 1988 "Maize in Somnathpur, an Indian medioeval temple",
Nature 335: 773-774 [Another letter, saying no]
Johannessen and Parker 1989 (see ref above).
Veena and Sigamani 1991 "Do objects in friezes of Somanthpur temple (1268 AD)
in South India represent maize ears?" Current Science 61:395-396
Payak, M.M., and Sachan, J.K.S.
1993 "Maize Ears Not Sculpted in 13th Century Somnathpur
Temple in India." Economic botany. APR 01 1993, vol. 47
no. 2, P. 202-
It is useless to go back to the same arguments once and again. Besides maize,
there are other threads goping back to November 1996, in which one person
alone has posted almost 150 articles on the topics above, mostly based in one
book and one article. Now that person is mostly quiet, though.
Enough said,
Domingo.
Domingo Martinez-Castilla
agdndmc@showme.missouri.edu
References: