data with which we are dealing and the inherent impre- 
cision of radiocarbon dating, which provides much of our 
chronological framework, it cannot be emphasized too 
strongly that the reconstructions here outlined, especially 
those concerning eastern United States, are of a tenta- 
tive nature. 
It has already been pointed out that pre-Chapalote, 
the maize introduced from Mexico into the American 
Southwest some 5000 years ago, developed quite slowly, 
until teosinte was introduced, also from Mexico, by about 
500 B.C. Pre-Chapalote has been recovered from the 
earliest, but undated, levels at Swallow Cave in Chihuahua 
(Mangelsdorf and Lister, 1956) and from the earliest, per- 
haps 5000-year-old level, at Bat Cave in southwestern 
New Mexico (Johnson, 1951; Mangelsdorf, 1954). 
More evolved, teosinte-contaminated, early Chapalote 
was recovered from a 2300-year-old level at Tularosa 
Cave in southwestern New Mexico not far from Bat Cave 
(Cutler, 1952; Johnson, 1951). The highly variable hy- 
brids that resulted from the blending of Chapalote and 
teosinte provided the base for the Basketmaker and 
Pueblo development. By the beginning of the Christian 
era, the Basketmaker horticultural way of life had spread 
north into southern Utah and southwestern Colorado. A 
number of sites in this area that have yielded early and 
evolved types of Chapalote showing varying amounts of 
teosinte contamination have been dated by dendrochro- 
nology. Among these are Cave du Pont (A.D. 217) in 
south-central Utah (Collins, in: Nusbaum, 1922; Schul- 
man, 1949); White Dog Cave (A.D. 312), as well as 
other sites in the Marsh Pass area of northeastern Ari- 
zona (Kidder and Guernsey, 1919; Guernsey and Kid- 
der, 1921; Gladwin, 1957: 87); and the Durango 
Basketmaker site (A. D. 46-830) near Durango in south- 
western Colorado (Morris and Burgh, 1954). 
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