A rapid dispersal of maize from the Great Plains to northeastern North America

Abstract

Northern Flint maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) is a distinct landrace that was common throughout early historical northeastern North America. It is likely represented archaeologically as Eastern 8-row maize, the dominant form there after 1200 CE. Genetic analyses indicate that Northern Flint is most likely derived from maize in the American Southwest. Evidence for maize in the form of phytoliths and starch recovered from directly radiocarbon dated cooking residues occurs in the Northeast by 290 BCE. Until recently there has been no substantiated evidence for maize of similar or older age in the Great Plains, through which maize is likely to have dispersed from the Southwest. A recent report of early microbotanical evidence for maize from the central Plains allows Bayesian modeling of radiocarbon dates to estimate the amount of time that elapsed before maize spread from the Plains to the Northeast. Results indicate only a short amount of time elapsed, from a few to less than 170 years.