the history of maize:

maize (Zea mays L.), also known as corn, corn, corn cob, corn seed, etc. in China, has been widely loved by people in various regions of China since the Ming Dynasty.

corn is called maize or corn in English, and we all know that corn is more American's name. maize, a more common English name, comes from Spanish maíz, which is derived from the name mahiz of corn by Taíno people living in the Caribbean islands of Central America. The Spanish colonists who arrived in the Caribbean islands at the end of the 15th century continued to use the name of corn by indigenous Taíno people at that time.

However, the earliest corn did not originate in the Caribbean, but in the southern part of Mexico, which is also Central America.

genetic archaeological research tells us that maize comes from an annual weed called teosinte(Zea mays ssp, parviglumis) (from its Latin name, it belongs to the same species as maize, but it belongs to different subspecies). Chinese is sometimes translated into maize-like, which was first domesticated in Balsas River basin in southern Mexico, about 9 years ago.

in 198s, some scholars confirmed that the maize-like subspecies of parviglumis (also translated as Oryza Xiaoying subspecies) had almost the same isozyme as modern maize, and this weed was the only subspecies with enough similarity to all modern maize genes.

through the double confirmation of isozyme and gene similarity closely related to plant genetic variation, this kind of maize successfully defeated other competitors and became almost the only original ancestor of maize.

in terms of origin time, according to the periodicity of gene mutation, scholars' research shows that the earliest domestication of maize can be stuck from 5689 to 1393, and if we take a middle point, the time is about 9 years ago. The earliest corn remains were found in the Guila Naquitz cave in Oaxaca Valley, Mexico, 623 years ago. According to the genetic archaeologist's prediction, it will take about 3 years to domesticate the completely wild teosinte to cultivated corn, and we can also speculate that the initial time of corn domestication is about 9 years ago.

With regard to the origin of maize, the current three research methods have all given their own understanding and contributions: the genetic archaeological research has hit the nail on the head and pointed out the origin time, place and ancestor irrefutably, but it has left a lot of gaps to be filled by plant archaeological materials.

The materials of large plant remains are credible, vivid and rich in information, but there is a clear gap between the origin time and the so-called gene speculation time; Micro-plant remains appeared in the key time and area of maize origin in time, which seems to perfectly explain the differences in the results of the first two research methods, but it is controversial because of its own dating and archaeological background.