At about A.D. 700, the new race of maize that we 
have named Maiz de Ocho made its appearance in north- 
ern Mexico, where it survives in a race called Harinoso 
de Ocho. Our data are still too few to establish with cer- 
tainty the routes by which Harinoso de Ocho traveled. 
No evidence of its influence has been noted between its 
postulated homeland in South America and northern 
Mexico. From the location of the few sites in the latter 
area where it has been found, the most likely route would 
have been up the west coast of Mexico. It seems proba- 
ble that it was also introduced into Central America and 
southern Mexico, but since this race is especially well 
suited to high latitudes or altitudes, it is not surprising 
that no evidence of it can be seen in the maize of this tropi- 
cal area. Once it reached northern Mexico, however, it 
apparently spread very rapidly throughout the South- 
west, where it occurs at Tularosa Cave at about the same 
time that it appears in Chihuahua. Since it was crossing 
an area which had long contained other maize, some of the 
new germplasm probably spread in the form of a hybrid. 
Our re-examination of some of the charred cobs from 
the Durango, Colorado Basketmaker site that were origi- 
nally thought to show a significant amount of ‘‘Eastern”’ 
(Maiz de Ocho) influence, led to the conclusion that the 
traits in question were more probably the result of teo- 
sinte introgression. Thus, with the cancellation of this 
material as evidence of Maiz de Ocho in a Basketmaker 
context, we can probably rule out its occurrence in the 
Southwest prior to about A.D. 700, when it entered 
the Mogollon area. 
The addition of this new race appears to have given 
a second and even more potent impetus to the develop- 
ment of the already well-adapted maize in the South- 
west. By sometime between about A.D. 950 and 1100, 
the area occupied by the Pueblo cultures reached its 
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