Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T18:10:22.727Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ceramic Evidence for the Prehistoric Distribution of Maize In Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Mary Eubanks Dunn
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anton, Ferdinand 1969 Ancient Mexican art. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Boos, Frank H. 1966a Las umas Zapotecas de las Colecciones Frissell y Leigh del Museo Frissell de Arte Zapoteca, Mitla, Oaxaca. Corpus Antiquitatum Americanensium II. Instituto Nacional de Antropología, Mexico.Google Scholar
Boos, Frank H. 1966b The ceramic sculptures of ancient Oaxaca. A. S. Barnes, New York.Google Scholar
Byers, Douglas S. (Editor) 1967 The prehistory of the Tehuacan Valley, I: Environment and subsistence. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso 1928 Las estelas Zapotecas. Secretaria de Educatión Publica, Mexico.Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso, and Ignacio, Bernal 1952 Urnas de Oaxaca. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent V., et al. 1967 Farming systems and political growth in ancient Oaxaca. Science 158:445-454.Google Scholar
Galinat, Walton C, and James, H. Gunnerson 1963 Spread of eight-rowed maize from the prehistoric Southwest. Harvard University, Botanical Museum Leaflets 20:117-160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jiménez, Moreno Wigberto 1970 Mesoamerica before the Toltecs. In Ancient Oaxaca, edited by John, Paddock. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.Google Scholar
Linné, Sigvald 1938 Zapotecan antiquities and the Paulson Collection in the Ethnographical Museum of Sweden. New Series Publications 4. Stockholm.Google Scholar
Lothrop, Samuel K. 1972 The treasures of ancient America. Editions d’Art Albert Skira, Geneva.Google Scholar
Mangelsdorf, Paul C. 1945 The origin and nature of the ear of maize. Botanical Museum of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mangelsdorf, Paul C. 1974 Corn: its origin, evolution, and improvement. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mangelsdorf, Paul C, Richard, S. MacNeish, and Walton, C. Galinat 1967 Prehistoric wild and cultivated maize. In The prehistory of the Tehuacan Valley, I, edited by Douglas, S. Byers, pp. 178-200. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Mason, J. Alden 1929 Zapotec funerary urns from Mexico. The Museum Journal 20:176-178. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Nickerson, Norton H. 1953 Variation in cob morphology among certain archaeological and ethnological races of maize, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 40:79-111.Google Scholar
Paddock, John(Editor) 1970 Ancient Oaxaca. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.Google Scholar
Roberts, L. M., Grant, U. J., Ricardo Ramirez, E., Hatheway, W. H., and Smith, D. L. in collaboration with Paul, C. Mangelsdorf 1957 Races of maize in Colombia National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council Publication 510.Google Scholar
Wellhausen, E. J., Roberts, L. M., and Hernandez X, E.. in collaboration with Paul, C. Mangelsdorf 1952 Races of maize in Mexico. Bussey Institution of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar