🚀 go-pugleaf

Correction --  In the posting below I mistakenly gave Johannessen's
article on sunflowers and maize in ancient Indian sculputres in 
the Summer 1998 issue of NEARA Journal as the location of photos 
of partially-husked maize ears.  In fact, the photos I was recalling
are in his article "Maize Diffused to India before Columbus Came
to America" in  the new volume _Across Before Columbus_, also 
published by NEARA.  Figures 15 and 16 in the ABC article show 
partially husked ears, while Figure 17 shows an ear with the 
husks still on (but the silk removed).  Silk appears in other photos,
both in this article and in the earlier _Economic Botany_ 
article.  The latter are on Yuri's website given below.

Technically, I believe the tassel is the male flower at the top
of the maize plant, rather than the silk at the top of the ear.
Brian appears to have the silk in mind rather than the tassel.

_Across Before Columbus_, edited by Donald Gilmore and Linda
McElroy,  is available from NEARA, Box 1050, 77 Court St.,
Laconia NH 03246.  $26.00 includes P&H.  See my recent post 
on sci.archaeology under the subject line "Across Before Columbus?"
for full contents, ISBN, etc.

-- Hu McCulloch    

>brianm@ims.com (Brian McLaughlin) writes:
>>mcculloch.2@osu.edu (Hu McCulloch) writes:
>>|> 
>>|> It was Jett who first identified the objects in question, in
>>|> photos from Somnathpur, as maize, circa 1979. 
>>|> Johannessen and Parker followed up on Jett's lead by visiting
>>|> this and other Hoysala temples first hand, and thoroughly documenting
>>|> that the carvings were indeed of maize, in their 1989 
>>|> _Economic Botany_ article.  

>>Not having access to photos of the sculptures in question, I have
>>one question: do the objects identified as maize have unmistakable
>>husks and tassels, in addition to rows of kernals?

>>If _all three_ of these elements are clearly sculpted, then the
>>objects could only be ears of maize. If the objects only have
>>rows of kernals, but no husks and no tassels, then the identification
>>is _much weaker_, IMHO.

>Johannessen's high-resolution color photos, linked on my page at
> http://economics.sbs.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/maize.html ,
>show only kernels.  However, Yuri has scanned several of the B&W
>photos in the Johannesen and Parker article, and posted them on two 
>web pages, at 
> www.globalserve.net/~yuku/dif/wmzpix.htm
> and
>                          ...                    /wmzpix1.htm 
>(That's a one, not an el, in the second URL)
>J&P's photos 14, 15, and 16 on the second of Yuri's pages 
>shown ears with their husks still on.  Photos 15 and 16 even show 
>curls of silk.  In Johannessen's Summer 1998 NEARA Journal 
>article, he even shows an ear with the husks _partially removed_!

>Johannessen's color slides are even more impressive than these
>grainy reproductions, so I recommend interested parties invite him 
>out for a talk.

>-- Hu McCulloch
>