BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
CambripGe, Massacuusetts, May 10, 1956 VoL. 17, No. 6 
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE 
ON THE EVOLUTION OF MAIZE 
IN NORTHWESTERN MEXICO 
BY 
Paut C. MANGELSDORF AND Rospert H. Lister* 
DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE 
ARCHAEOLOGICAL investigations by one of the authors 
(Lister) were initiated in caves in the northern Sierra 
Madre Occidental of Mexico in the hope of contributing 
to the solution of a problem about which students of the 
cultures of the southwestern United States and central 
Mexico have frequently speculated—that of possible cul- 
tural connections between central Mexico and the Amer- 
ican Southwest. Attempts made in the past to link the 
cultures of Mexico and the Southwest via the west coast 
of Mexico or the central plateau of northern Mexico have 
not succeeded. Therefore, attention was focused on the 
northern Sierra Madre, for it was known that caves con- 
taining archaeological material existed in the canyons of 
that region. Many of these caves were known to include 
cliff dwellings thought to be associated with the Casas 
Grandes, a relatively recent Puebloid culture whose re- 
mains are concentrated in the basins and valleys of 
northwestern Chihuahua. It was hoped that, by digging 
beneath the cliff dwellings, earlier deposits would be en- 
countered and that some of these earlier levels would rep- 
* Division of Anthropology, University of Colorado. 
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