This remains an astonishing story. It's hard to imagine how this could have been done in 9,000 BC by supposedly primitive farmers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/scien...ature.html
So much more impressive than any bible/koran based "miracles."
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/scien...ature.html
Quote:Tracking the Ancestry of Corn Back 9,000 Years
Quote:Researchers led by Anthony Ranere of Temple University and Dolores Piperno of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History excavated caves and rock shelters in the region, searching for tools used by their inhabitants, maize starch grains and other microscopic evidence of maize.
In the Xihuatoxtla shelter, they discovered an array of stone milling tools with maize residue on them. The oldest tools were found in a layer of deposits that were 8,700 years old. This is the earliest physical evidence of maize use obtained to date, and it coincides very nicely with the time frame of maize domestication estimated from DNA analysis.
The most impressive aspect of the maize story is what it tells us about the capabilities of agriculturalists 9,000 years ago. These people were living in small groups and shifting their settlements seasonally. Yet they were able to transform a grass with many inconvenient, unwanted features into a high-yielding, easily harvested food crop. The domestication process must have occurred in many stages over a considerable length of time as many different, independent characteristics of the plant were modified.
So much more impressive than any bible/koran based "miracles."
