🚀 go-pugleaf

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