THE ANCESTOR OF CORN—MANGELSDORF 497 
OLDEST CULTIVATED CORN 
The oldest known remains of cultivated corn come from a once- 
inhabited rock shelter in New Mexico known as Bat Cave, which 
was excavated by Herbert Dick, of the Peabody Museum of Harvard 
University and later of the Colorado University Museum, in two 
expeditions, in 1948 and 1950 [4, 5]. This cave was inhabited for 
several thousand years by people who practiced a primitive form 
of agriculture and an even more primitive pattern of sanitation. 
During the centuries of their occupancy, garbage, excrement, and 
other debris accumulated in the cave to a depth of 6 feet, creating 
exactly the kind of site which archeologists delight to dig into. At 
the bottom of this accumulation of trash, Dick turned up some tiny 
cobs of ancient corn which have been dated, on the basis of Willard 
Libby’s radiocarbon determination of associated charcoal, at about 
5,600 years. 
Ficure 1,—Botanical characteristics of the modern corn plant. (4) The entire plant, 
showing the male inflorescence, the tassel, at the tip of the stalk and the female inflores- 
cences, the ears, in the middle region; (B) young ears enclosed in husks with the pollen- 
receptive organs (the silks) protruding from the ends; (C) typical tassel; (D) typical male 
flower with three anthers containing pollen; (Z) a single silk magnified to show hairs and 
adhering pollen grains. [From P. C. Mangelsdorf, ‘“‘Corn” (2), by permission of Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica] 
