Archaeologica.org

Maize was domesticated from its wild ancestor more than 8700 years according to biological evidence uncovered by researchers in the Mexico's Central Balsas River Valley. This is the earliest dated evidence -- by 1200 years -- for the presence and use of domesticated maize.

Minimalist wrote: Maize required some actual bioengineering and it is simply inconceivable that primitive hunter/gatherers could have figured it out. Perhaps they were more advanced than we give them credit for?

The ancestors of wheat, rice, millet, and barley look like their domesticated descendants; because they are both edible and highly productive, one can easily imagine how the idea of planting them for food came up. Maize can't reproduce itself, because its kernels are securely wrapped in the husk, so Indians must have developed it from some other species. But there are no wild species that resemble maize. It's closest genetic relative is a mountain grass called teosinte that looks strikingly different--for one thing, its "ears" are smaller than baby corn served in Chinese restaurants. No one eats teosinte, because it produces too little grain to be worth harvesting. In creating modern maize from this unpromising plant, Indians performed a feat so improbable that archaeologists and biologists have argued for decades over how it was achieved.

Minimalist wrote:I guess the 'scientists' want evidence.