tral Kansas. These three complexes, which together form 
the Central Plains phase or tradition, persisted until 
sometime between ca. A.D. 1450 and 1550, ending 
probably earlier in the west and later in the east. South 
of the Central Plains phase, and at least partly contempo- 
raneous with it, are similar and perhaps related complexes 
such as the Antelope Creek Focus of the Texas Panhandle 
and the Washita and Custer foci of Oklahoma. Wedel 
(1959: 628) states, ‘‘The origins of the Central Plains 
tradition remain to be worked out. That it is basically 
of eastern or southeastern derivation seems clear. The 
square earth lodge is well known from prehistoric cul- 
tures farther south, in eastern Oklahoma and Arkansas; 
and as we have seen, there is direct evidence of contacts 
between Smoky Hill valley sites and the lower Arkansas 
valley. More accurate determination of chronology in 
the two areas is needed before we can be certain of the 
significance of the contacts.”’ 
It is specifically with the Arkansas River area that 
Southwestern cultures apparently had contacts in the 
lower Mississippi drainage at about A. D. 700 (Jennings, 
ed., 1959: 84-86). With some sort of relationship al- 
ready established between the Southwest and the Arkan- 
sas River area, it is reasonable to assume that Maiz de 
Ocho would have reached this area as soon as it did the 
Davis Site 275 miles straight south. The Arkansas River 
area, could, in fact, have served as a point from which 
Maiz de Ocho was dispersed north, south and east. The 
lack of Southwestern trade items at all of the numerous 
sites of the Central Plains phase, whereas such trade 
material is relatively abundant in later periods (Wedel, 
1961), helps support the idea that Maiz de Ocho did not 
enter the Central Plains directly from the Southwest. 
In the Central Plains, Kivett (1949, p. 280) reported 
maize cobs with six to twelve rows from Upper Repub- 
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