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About six thousand years ago maize agriculture was concentrated in western Mexico, but it gradually spread into South America, and further north into the North American continent. The oldest relics of cultivated corn north of Mexico, corncobs from Bat Cave in New Mexico, date to 3000 years B.P. By the time the Spanish arrived in the Americas in the 16th century, corn was grown from Chile all the way to Canada.
Corn in Ancient America
Maize sustained ancient Mesoamerican cultures and was considered a sacred plant. The Maya in Central America stacked dishes high with corn tamales as offerings to the gods. Eventually maize became central to life in both the South and North American continents as well. Moche burials from Pacatuamu, on the north coast of Peru (circa 1500 B.P.), contained offerings of maize in gourd bowls.
Among Native Americans of the southwestern United States, corn was one of four sacred plants, including squash, beans and tobacco. In the Hopi culture, maize was associated with the cardinal directions: yellow corn is north, blue is west; red is south, and white is east. Maize was an important part of the diet, cultural life and rituals in the Americas.
Much of what we know about life in the Americas during the 16th and 17th centuries, is gathered from codices (travel narratives) written by Europeans. The authors described the cultures of these previously unknown lands, and their writings contain numerous accounts of corn. In his description of Aztec life, Fray Diego Durán describes an annual festival:
 There was a feast called Etzalcualiztli, which fell when the rains had begun, when the corn was half-grown and already bearing ears. On this day the priests of the wards, in honor of water and the benefits it brought them, and in honor of the cornfield, broke the maize stalks two or three knots below the ear of corn. They gathered from each cornfield an armful of cornstalks with their ears...They took the stalks and carried them to the point where the streets crossed and placed them on both sides of the road. ...the woman of all the wards came out and offered to that Daily Place tortillas made of Xilotl. Xilotl is the name that ears are given before the kernels have dried. (Durán, Book of the Gods and Rites and the Ancient Calendar).
In the Aztec religion maize was a life-giving god and the most highly esteemed god. The Nahuatl (Aztec) name for maize is toneuhcayotl, which means literally "our flesh." Round-bottomed bowls held the Aztecs' chocolate beverage, made from crushed seeds of the sacred cacao tree, cornmeal, chiles, vanilla and water. Similar vessels also were used for drinking atole, a sweet creamy beverage made from cornmeal (and often flavored with chocolate). Atole is still consumed in Mexico, and beyond, where Mexican culture thrives.
Sidebar:
Maize and Art
Maize was a decorative element in ancient American pottery and sculpture. This Peruvian pot (ca.900-1000 A.D.) has corn ear reliefs.
continue to additional history: maize and mythology >>
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