El Gigante Rock Shelter: Archaic Mesoamerica and Transitions to Settled Life

Maize Macrofossils

The corn cobs mentioned above are a tantalizing set of archaeological remains. Rarely do archaeologists get the chance to evaluate organic material dating to more than 2000 years ago. This paucity of data has been the major stumbling block to resolving the debates surrounding the origins of maize agriculture in Mesoamerica. 1,290 cobs or cob fragments were found in units 1 and 2 alone, projecting this figure for the entire excavation means that a sample of somewhere on the order of 10,000 cobs will make up the entire collection.

Two aspects of the Zea assemblage are striking: First, the size of the cobs increases from the tiny <2.5 cm specimens of the lowest levels to cobs comparable in length to those harvested today in the region. Second, in the more dense accumulations of cobs, the diversity of forms is incredible. Some assemblages from the same excavated horizontal level contain small, four rank mazorquitas as well as larger six rank, multiple-row cobs. The shapes of the cobs range from long and narrow, to stout and cone-like, to fat and cylindrical. The interpretation is that many varieties (or races) of corn were already being planted by the early to mid-Formative.

We rule out at this point the possibility of in situ maize domestication here in Highland Honduras, though teosinte was wild in this area in prehistoric times. The location is right for encountering Zea luxurians and/or Zea nicaraguensis (Benz, pers. comm.). This is an initial conclusion based on the direct dating of a single fully domesticated cob, thought to have been the earliest specimen from unit 2 (400-350 B.C. and 310-210 B.C.) and on the lack of any teosinte-like hybrids or teosinte such as those found, described and directly dated at Guila Naquitz (Benz, 2001).

We do not know from where the original maize plant was brought in to the area, likewise, later varietals could represent locally derived hybrid species or may also be imported. Racial classification of the sample assemblage remains a major task that can establish the extent of connections to other parts of Mesoamerica. Racial classification and timing of the arrival of certain varieties has great potential for establishing connections between distant geographic areas (Benz, 1994).

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