Basic Species Information
Today, maize (Zea mays L.), which is also called “corn” or “sweet corn” in English-speaking countries, is one of the most important food crops cultivated globally. From initial, potential domestication in the Balsas River Valley of tropical southwestern Mexico around 9000–8600 years ago (Piperno et al. 2009), maize spread across much of Central and South America before 4000–3000 years ago (Iriarte 2007), to North America around 2000 years ago (see Fritz 2007), and has subsequently dispersed across the globe in the last 500 years or so.
Today, maize is grown by subsistence farmers across the globe as a source of starch or carbohydrate. Its widespread geographical adoption is due to its ability to adapt to a variety of climates, soils, and habitats. Although an important food crop, it is also grown for ethanol and corn syrup; the latter is a contributor to a vast array of processed foods.
The multidisciplinary history of maize domestication and dispersal is...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Doebley, J.F., B.S. Gaut, and B.D. Smith. 2006. The molecular genetics of crop domestication. Cell 127: 1309–1321.
Fritz, G.J. 2007. Keepers of Louisiana’s levees: Early mound builders and forest managers. In Rethinking agriculture: Archaeological and ethnoarchaeological perspectives, ed. T.P. Denham, J. Iriarte, and L. Vrydaghs, 189–209. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.
Hastorf, C.A. 2009. Rio Balsas most likely region for maize domestication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 106: 4957–4958.
Iriarte, J. 2007. New perspectives on plant domestication and the development of agriculture in the New World. In Rethinking agriculture: Archaeological and ethnoarchaeological perspectives, ed. T.P. Denham, J. Iriarte, and L. Vrydaghs, 167–188. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.
Jaenicke-Després, V., E.S. Buckler, B.D. Smith, M.T.P. Gilbert, A. Cooper, J. Doebley, and S. Pääbo. 2003. Early allelic selection in maize as revealed by ancient DNA. Science 302: 1206–1208.
Matsuoka, Y., Y. Vigouroux, M.M. Goodman, J. Sanchez, E. Buckler, and J. Doebley. 2002. A single domestication for maize shown by multilocus microsatellite genotyping. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 99: 6080–6084.
Perry, L., D.H. Sandweiss, D.R. Piperno, K. Rademaker, M.A. Malpass, A. Umire, and P. de la Vera. 2006. Early maize agriculture and interzonal interaction in southern Peru. Nature 440: 76–79.
Piperno, D.R., and K.V. Flannery. 2001. The earliest archaeological maize (Zea mays L.) from highland Mexico: New accelerator mass spectrometry dates and their implications. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 98: 2101–2103.
Piperno, D.R., A.J. Ranere, I. Holst, J. Iriarte, and R. Dickau. 2009. Starch grain and phytolith evidence for early ninth millennium B.P. maize from the Central Balsas River Valley, Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 106: 5019–5024.
Ranere, A., D.R. Piperno, I. Holst, R. Dickau, and J. Iriarte. 2009. The cultural and chronological context of early Holocene maize and squash domestication in the Central Balsas River Valley, Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 106: 5014–5018.
Smith, B.D. 1998. The emergence of agriculture. New York: Scientific American Library.
Smith, B.D. 2001. Documenting plant domestication: The consilience of biological and archaeological approaches. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 98: 1324–1326.
Van Heerwaarden, J., J. Doebley, W.H. Briggs, J.C. Glaubitz, M.M. Goodman, J. de Sanchez Gonzalez, and J. Ross-Ibarra. 2011. Genetic signals of origin, spread, and introgression in a large sample of maize landraces. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 108: 1088–1092.
Zeder, M.A., E. Emshwiller, B.D. Smith, and D.G. Bradley. 2006. Documenting domestication: The intersection of genetics and archaeology. Trends in Genetics 22: 139–155.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Denham, T. (2020). Maize: Origins and Development. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_2179
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_2179
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-30016-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-30018-0
eBook Packages: HistoryReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities