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Re: Maize origins [was re: "Corn" in medieval Europe]

Lars Arnestam (lars.arnestam@al.etx.ericsson.se) wrote:
: Yuri Kuchinsky wrote:
: > 
: .....
: > But until such time as decisive evidence shows up, the investigation
: > should continue and all further evidence should be considered. So the fact
: > that no fossils are available so far does not mean much. It's simply a
: > lack of evidence and is of little consequence.

: I'm an absolute novice in the field, but I wonder:  If someone seriously
: wanted to prove that maize was grown in India (or "the Old World")
: before Columbus, couldn't pollen analysis be one mean of at least either
: strengthening or weakening that hypothesis?  I realize that a very large
: percentage of the land in India probably has been continually cultivated
: for a very long time, but even so I don't think that it can be
: impossible to find pollen deposits that are older than Columbus.  Does
: anyone know anything about this?

Well, Lars, this matter of pollen has certainly been considered by J&P. 
In their ECONOMIC BOTANY article they summarize the evidence available. 
Some ancient maize pollen in India has been apparently identified about 30
years ago. But it seems that there has not been any recent effort to
conduct further studies in this area. Please contact me by e-mail if
you're interested in further refs. 

Yuri.

Yuri Kuchinsky   | "Where there is the Tree of Knowledge, there
     -=-         | is always Paradise: so say the most ancient 
 in Toronto      | and the most modern serpents."  F. Nietzsche
 ----- my webpage is for now at: http://www.io.org/~yuku -----
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