Abstract
Evidence for the presence of maize (Lea. mays, Poaceae) in India prior to traditional European contact is found in stone sculptures of maize ears in the 12th and 13th century (and earlier) Hoysala temples in southern India near Mysore. These “ears” present the morphology of maize in such intricate and specifically variable representations that it would have been impossible for sculptors to have imagined the variability consistently and realistically without large numbers of actual maize ears as models. No other natural model could supply this variability. We should search for other crops and cultural artifacts that would have diffused with maize across the oceans before 1492 A.D.
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Johannessen, C.L., Parker, A.Z. Maize ears sculptured in 12th and 13th centuryA.D. India as indicators of pre-columbian diffusion. Econ Bot 43, 164–180 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02859857
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02859857