less productive food plants encountered similar drought 
conditions on the mesa, they merely adapted by shifting 
their subsistence patterns to include more wild food 
rather than seek a more suitable farming area. 
The early radiocarbon date (18+188 B.C.) and the 
major cultural traits at BR-45 indicate that the races of 
maize, Maiz de Ocho and Pima Papago, located there 
were originally derived from the southern Mogollon cul- 
ture rather than from the Anasazi of the San Juan drain- 
age area to the North. That is, the age of the Basket- 
maker cultural level at BR-45 and the other nearby sites 
discussed in this paper is intermediate between that of 
the older Mogollon cultures of the South and the more 
recent San Juan cultures of the North. This suggests 
that the Middle Rio Grande Valley was an area of tran- 
sition from South to North. 
THe Maize rrom Boca NeGra Cave 
Before the introduction of Maiz de Ocho, the indige- 
nous race of maize, Chapalote, occurred in Basketmaker 
II (preceramic) times about twelve miles away toward 
the river at Boca Negra Cave. Later the people presuma- 
bly moving from the drying mesa area (BR-45) left their 
Maiz de Ocho and Pima Papago maize during the early 
Basketmaker II1 period (the end of the Alameda Phase). 
The radiocarbon date of A.D. 370+168 for this new 
maize at the cave is a jump of over 400 years over that 
reported for its collection at BR-45, only 124 miles away 
but 1000 feet higher on the west mesa. 
There were 24 eroded cobs, eight of which had been 
carbonized, from Boca Negra Cave. The excavation was 
in stratigraphic layers from the surface to a depth of 40 
inches. ‘he cobs represent two distinct races, Chapalote 
and Maiz de Ocho and their hybrid, Pima Papago, as 
well as some intermediate types classified as ‘‘mixed”’ 
[ 324 | 
