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Humans have been bonding over popcorn and beer for centuries. What other ancient foods are we still eating today? Source: Nejron Photo / Adobe Stock

12 Ancient Foods That We Still Love Today

There are few things humans love more than food. For centuries, humans have been creating new, delicious recipes to enjoy. While we may eat somewhat differently nowadays (after all, I don’t think our...
The first ever stylistic representation of the “young corn god” of the Maya, from the 7th century, recently discovered in a lost ritual pond in the vast remains of Palenque, Mexico.		Source: INAH

1300-Year-Old Severed Head Sculpture Located in the ‘Lost City’ of Maya

The first published European account of the lost city of Palenque is from 1567, by the Spaniard, Father Pedro Lorenzo de la Nada, who found this vast abandoned Maya city. The local Chol Maya called...
Archaeologists working at the southwestern Belize rock shelter site where the “migrant” skeletons were found, providing new evidence that Maya corn cultivation culture began about 5,500 years ago as a new idea from somewhere in South America.		Source: Erin E. Ray / Science

Maya Were Likely Taught to Grow Corn by Southern Migrants

A team of archaeologists and genetic scientists have just announced the results of a groundbreaking study of DNA obtained from ancient “migrant” skeletons found in Belize. What they discovered helped...
Ancient Burial Brings New Date Of First Maize Use In Mesoamerica

Ancient Burial Brings New Date Of First Maize Use In Mesoamerica

An international team of researchers has investigated the earliest humans in Central America and how they adapted over time to new and changing environments, and how those changes have affected human...
Cahokia figurine. (Public Domain) Background: Close up of colorful gem glass corn on cob. (Picture Partners) Cahokia was an ancient metropolis that grew as its people cultivated corn.

North America’s Ancient Metropolis Cahokia Was Built On Corn

Corn cultivation spread from Mesoamerica to what is now the American Southwest by about 4000 BC, but how and when the crop made it to other parts of North America is still a subject of debate. In a...
Sunrise over plantation, representation of lost crop field.       Source: somkak / Adobe stock

The Revival of Ancient Lost Crops Reveals Surprising Results

The scientific cultivation of lost ancient seed crops has yielded much higher than expected growth rates, challenging assumptions about maize (corn) growth in prehistoric North America . According to...
Species of corn found in the American Southwest.

Fire, not corn was key to prehistoric survival in the arid Southwest USA

Conventional wisdom holds that prehistoric villagers planted corn, and lots of it, to survive the dry and hostile conditions of the American Southwest. But University of Cincinnati archaeology...
Remembering the Future: How Ancient Maya Agronomists Changed the Modern World

Remembering the Future: How Ancient Maya Agronomists Changed the Modern World

The Maya were the longest-lived civilization in history. Their history lasted for 3,500 years and traced parallel time lines with other ancient civilizations. They began their civilization in 2500 BC...
Examples of variegated maize ears and a figurine from the Casas Grandes culture c. 1200 - 1450.

Drinking in the Past: Centuries Old Evidence for Consumption of Corn Beer Found in Mexico

By analyzing calculus on the teeth of the remains of people who died in an influential Mexican city hundreds of years ago, researchers are getting clues about their diet. One finding was that the...
West Acropolis of Yaxchilan

Animal bones shed light on the lifestyle of citizens in ancient Maya cities

While archaeologists and historians know much about the lives of Maya royalty and rulers, the lifestyles of the poor and middle class are wrapped in mystery. A new study that is examining hordes of...
The ancient Mexican Codex Borgia of the Aztecs, who came after the Olmecs but who also revered corn, shows Quetzalcóatl

Possible sacred maize object found in stream at Olmec site

Archaeologists have found an artifact made of jadeite at an Olmec site in Mexico that they think represents a cob of corn and that may have been offered to the gods. Corn was a vitally important crop...