🚀 go-pugleaf

Why do these pictorial references, carvings etc, have to be maize?  Is there
additional material to support this interpretation?  I know they look like
maize to the Americo-centric eye, but to me the first impression I have is
of the fruit of the Monstera deliciosa..... aka fruit-salad-fruit.  This in
itself proves nothing, what I mean to illustrate is that there are a number
of botanical items that appear quite similar to the objects in the carvings
(if they are "fruits" at all).

There are at the very least questions of tradition to be made before leaping
into the hypothesis that these are maize and hence indicate commerce between
continents.

1)    What are the ornaments and totems commonly associated with this figure
(ie the being holding the items)?  Is it vegetation, fertility, coinage,
stacks of some smaller item?

2)    What do the local people usually interpret the item as being?

When these are addressed with suitable rigour, then we can talk about the
implications.
Hu McCulloch wrote in message ...
>
>Carl Johannessen's article on sunflower images in Indian temple
>sculptures has now been reprinted in the journal
>of the New England Antiquities Research Association: "Pre-Columbian
>American Sunflower and Maize Images in Indian Temples:  Evidence of
>Contact between Civilizations in India and America," _NEARA Journal_,
>vol. 32, #1 (Summer 1998), pp. 4-18.    This article was first published
>in a volume honoring John Sorenson, but is more accessible in
>_NEARA Journal_.   Furthermore, the critical photographic evidence
>is reproduced better in the NEARA version.
>
>Back issues of NEARA Journal can be obtained from NEARA Publications,
>c/o Suzanne Carlson, 94 Cross Point Rd, Edgecomb, ME 04556,
>(207) 882 8155, fax (207) 882 8162, e-mail krosspt@lincoln.midcoast.com .
>($4 per issue).
>
>Although Johannessen has been working on the sunflower evidence
>since at least 1992, he was was scooped by 2 years in getting documentation
>of pre-Columbian Indian sunflowers into print by Shakti M. Gupta, in her
>1996 _Plants in Indian Temple Art_.  Nevertheless, the images Johannessen
>reports are from different sites than those Gupta showts, and so his work
>complements hers.
>
>Johannessen also discusses pre-Columbian maize in Indian sculptures
>in the NEARA Journal article.  His article in _Economic Botany_, 1989,
>with Anne Parker, remains his most thorough treatment of this topic,
>but the new one adds some useful information and new photographs.
>In the new article he indicates that maize is present in most, if not
>all of the 60 pre-Columbian Hoysala temples in Karnataka, contrary to
>Oscar Schlaf's miscontention here recently that there is only one alleged
>maize sculpture, and not a single temple with a maize sculpture.
>
>In the new article, Johannessen pushes back the presence of maize
>in India to the 6th century AD, with a photo of a maize ear held in
>the hand of Vishnu, from Cave Temple III, Badami, Karnataka.
>This ear is distincly smaller than the 12th-13th century examples that
>appear in Johannessen's other photos, and is partly covered
>by the hand, in contrast with the vertical position of most of the
>maize ears.
>
>Gupta's book confirms Johannessen and Parker's identification of
>the later Hoysala sculpture objects as maize.  See my website
>below for photos and links.
>
>-- Hu McCulloch
>   mcculloch.2@osu.edu
>   http://economics.sbs.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/outliers.html
>