Since its domestication some 9,000 years ago, maize (Zea mays L.; corn) has played an
increasing and diverse role in global agri-food systems. Global maize production has surged …

During the last two decades, new archaeological projects which systematically integrate a
variety of plant recovery techniques, along with palaeoecology, palaeoclimate, soil science …

The origins of maize were the topic of vigorous debate for nearly a century, but neither the
current genetic model nor earlier archaeological models account for the totality of available …

A wide-ranging and accessible introduction to the origins and histories of the first agricultural
populations in many different parts of the world This fully revised and updated second …

The role of seasonality is indisputable in climate and ecosystem dynamics. Seasonal
temperature and precipitation variability are of vital importance for the availability of food …

Gossypium, the cotton genus, includes∼ 50 species distributed in tropical and sub-tropical
regions of all continents except Europe. Here we provide a synopsis of the evolutionary …

The genetic prehistory of human populations in Central America is largely unexplored
leaving an important gap in our knowledge of the global expansion of humans. We report …

The influence of climate change on civil conflict and societal instability in the premodern
world is a subject of much debate, in part because of the limited temporal or disciplinary …

The Vienna Peedee Belemnite (VPDB) isotope reference defines the zero point of the
carbon stable isotope scale that is used to describe the relative abundance of 13C and 12C …

Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) domestication began in southwestern Mexico∼ 9,000 calendar
years before present (cal. BP) and humans dispersed this important grain to South America …