News Archaeology

Maize domestication grows older in Mexico

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Inhabitants of southern Mexico began to cultivate maize, the major grain crop of prehistoric societies in the Americas, by at least 6,300 years ago, a new study finds. This is around 800 years earlier than previous estimates.

A279_1465.JPG Researchers have found ancient maize in Mexico at Guilá Naquitz and in Tehuacán Valley. A proposed ancestor of maize grows in the Central Balsas Valley.