BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
Campripge, Massacuusetts, APRIL 9, 1956 
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE ON THE 
DIFFUSION AND EVOLUTION OF MAIZE 
IN NORTHEASTERN MEXICO 
BY 
Pau. C. Mancetsporr, Ricuarp S. MacNEIsu * 
AND Wa Ton C. GALINAT 
DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE 
In 1945 and 1946, one of the authors (MacNeish) con- 
ducted an archaeological reconnaissance for the Univer- 
sity of Chicago in the state of Tamaulipas in northeastern 
Mexico. Analysis of the survey material revealed that 
one part of this region, the northern Sierra de T'amauli- 
pas, contained a series of sites which might be expected 
to yield astratigraphic sequence of cultures ranging from 
relatively simple manifestations lacking pottery, agricul- 
ture or large settlements to more complex stages includ- 
ing agriculture, large settlements and a well-advanced 
technology (MacNeish, 1947). It was hoped that data 
obtained from such a sequence might shed light upon 
the problem of the development of civilization in Meso- 
America or that it would, at least, illustrate the transition 
from a hunting, food-gathering existence to a sedentary, 
agricultural mode of life. Accordingly, in 1948 and 1949 
an expedition under the auspices of the Viking Fund 
(now the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological 
* National Museum of Canada, 
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Voit. 17, No. 5 
