archaeological maize from Swallow Cave, similar to the 
earliest Bat Cave material, has not been dated but the 
fact that it occurred in levels 13 and 14, seven feet below 
the surface, suggests a very substantial age. The pre- 
pottery corn from Tm C 247, a site excavated by 
MacNeish (24, 25), some of which is similar to the Bat 
Cave corn, has been tentatively dated at 8945 years. The 
oldest corn from Huaca Prietain Peru, dated about 2900 
years, is already well advanced in its development over 
the earliest Bat Cave corn. 
The evidence, so far as it goes, is consistent with the 
conclusion that corn was first domesticated about 5000 
years ago or perhaps a millennium or more still earlier. 
How, even in this length of time, could the primitive 
corn, with which domestication began, have evolved into 
the highly developed varieties of today such as the Corn- 
Belt corn of the United States with its magnificent ears 
or the spectacular large-seeded flour corn of the region 
of Cuzco, Peru? This is a question to which we hope 
that the earlier papers in this series will have given, at 
least, some of the answers. 
[ 424. ] 
