BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
CaMBRIDGE, MAssacnuseTTs, JANUARY 10, 1975 Vou. 24, No. 3 
ARCHAEOLOGICAL MAIZE FROM 
NORTHERN CHILE 
BY 
Paunt C. Mancetsporr AND Gorpon C. PoLLarp* 
INTRODUCTION 
Now that the modern races of maize of the countries 
of this hemisphere have been classified and described in 
a series of eleven publications issued by the National 
Academy of Sciences- National Research Council, it has 
become a common procedure for botanists analyzing 
collections of prehistoric remains of corn of a particular 
country to relate the ancient specimens, so far as is possi- 
ble, to the living races of that country. The modern 
maize of Chile has been described by Timothy ef al. 
(1961), who recognized nineteen more or less distinct 
races. 
As part of a study of prehispanic cultural development 
in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, the junior 
author of this report obtained several collections of maize 
cobs from archaeological sites found near the town of 
Chiu Chiu, which lies beside the middle section of the 
Loa River. The vicinity of Chiu Chiu, at an elevation 
of 2500 meters, is a small oasis along the river which 
supports a narrow band of vegetation in the extreme 
* Associate Professor of Anthropology, State University of New 
York College at Plattsburgh. 
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