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Stone disc alluding to the young maize god corroborates the common religious base of Toniná and Palenque. Source: INAH

Stunning Stone Disk Shows Ancient Maya Enemies Worshipped Same Corn God

In the year 687, a terrible war broke out between the ancient Maya kingdoms of Lakamha’ and Po’p. From their capital cities of Palenque and Tonina respectively, they fought each other for an...
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...
The terraces at Moray. 	Source: Alisha / Adobe Stock.

Andean Agriculture: What Were The Inca Building At Moray?

In the South American nation of Peru can be found the ruins of the last Pre-Columbian civilization, the glorious Inca Empire. What was once a thriving, rich civilization is today’s tourist attraction...
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...
Oldest And Largest Pre-Maya Sacred Site Discovered In Mexico

Oldest And Largest Pre-Maya Sacred Site Discovered In Mexico

The largest and oldest monumental pre-Maya structure has been identified in Mexico revealing an ancient culture that thrived without a centralized government or elite classes. A team of...
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...
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...
Mayan Temples

Pre-Maya hunters and farmers may have collaborated in building temples

The prevailing theory among archaeologists holds that prehistoric people settled down as they began to grow crops and manage livestock and then built progressively more advanced civilizations with...
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...