There are quite a few mysteries associated with the spread of maize around the world. The picture on the left, a photo of a stone carving of "Maize Goddess" in a medieval South Indian temple, one of great many such carvings, tells quite a story. Was maize in India many centuries before Columbus already? Indications are mounting that this indeed is the case.

First of all, here's the link to the homepage of Prof. Carl Johannessen of the University of Oregon, the researcher who has done a lot recently to investigate this fascinating subject. And also many other related subjects.

And now, the list of the more recent articles. More detailed articles that I wrote on this subject previously are also available here, with more images of maize in India.

• Here's one more discussion about maize in India. This is a general background discussion.
• And this is a continuation of that discussion about maize. Here we learn that some of the big opponents of maize being ancient in India have changed their minds, apparently.
• More about maize in India. Here I and Hu McCulloch are discussing the interesting fact that there seem to be some linguistic connections confirming that maize was ancient in India.
• Maize was in China before Columbus. Here's the evidence.
• Maize names in Europe.
• Here is an important posting by Hu. Actually, this file contains two articles Hu posted, dealing with the history of maize in India, and with the fact that a big opponent of Prof. Johannessen now seems to have changed his mind.
• Another exchange with Hu.
• This exchange is with Greg. Some more rather weighty info to back up the idea of the great antiquity of maize around Asia.
• And this article contains info about some apparently revolutionary research at Duke University clarifying the origins of maize in America. This came out in the summer of '97.

All these exchanges are from 1997.

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