ca 2300 B.C. and may be several centuries later. 
The 1950 Bat Cave collection comprises 816 specimens 
and includes cobs, eroded fragments of cobs, kernels, 
husk systems and husk fragments, peduncles, pieces of 
stalk, and one tassel fragment. We shall consider these 
below in relation to the levels in which they were found 
in the Cave. 
Tue Cops 
On the whole the cobs from this collection, numbering 
444 specimens in addition to one fragment bearing ker- 
nels, were quite similar to those of the earlier excavation 
but with one important difference. Some of the cobs from 
the lowest levels were smaller and more primitive than 
any of those previously turned up at this site. Three of 
these are illustrated in Plate ILI, A. 
Early Maize a Popcorn 
The senior author and his associate, Dr. Walton C. 
Galinat, made an intensive study of one of these speci- 
mens which contained the partial remains of a single 
kernel. We spent several days in dissecting this cob and 
measuring all of its parts. On the basis of these measure- 
ments, Galinat prepared the diagrammatical longitudi- 
nal section illustrated in Fig. 1. We concluded that the 
tiny kernels which this cob must once have borne could 
only have been those of popcorn, a type in which the 
kernels are small and hard and are capable of exploding 
when exposed to heat. This conclusion has been amply 
confirmed by finding among the prehistoric grains several 
actual specimens of popped corn described later. The 
Bat Cave specimens thus provide convincing archaeolo- 
gical evidence in support of one part of the conclusion 
first reached by Sturtevant (1894) and later by Mangels- 
dorf and Reeves (1939) that primitive corn was both a 
popcorn and a pod corn. 
[5] 
