“OLDEST EAR OF CORN”

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1934, Page 14 (Supplement)

“OLDEST EAR OF CORN”

DECEPTION OF SCIENTISTS. SUPPOSED FOSSIL ONLY CLAY. The world of science has discovered that it has been fooled for 20 years, and Smithsonian Institution scientists are a little crestfallen, says the New York Times. An object they have been showing proudly for two decades as the oldest known ear of corn on earth has turned out to be one of the best “fakes” in history. It’s really only a clay rattle, fashioned by some ancient Peruvian craftsman into an amazingly clever imitation. The “fake” ear of corn, to all outward appearances, was a fossil, preserved in the ground for several thousand years, thus indicating that com was grown in very ancient times by the Indians of old Peru. Scientists have accepted the object as such ever since it came into possession of the Smithsonian Institution, about 1914, after being purchased in Cuzco, Peru. It has been on public exhibition in the National Museum at Washington. Recently, however, scientists have been renewing their efforts to learn the history of corn, or maize, which is believed to have originated in the. New World. The “fossil ear of corn** was sent to Dr. Roland W. Brown of the Geological Survey for study. He discovered the sad truth. The supposed fossil was formed of clay, moulded by hand and baked to hardness in i slow fire. Near the base was a conical cavity containing three small, round oval pellets. In other words, the thing was a rattle.

Scientifically, however, the rattle is btill important. Obviously ancient, it shows corn was familiar -to the Peruvians long ago. “The object is so clever a copy of an original ear of Peruvian maize that the maker must be credited with having been an artist of superior skill,” says Dr. Brown.

“The question as to who made this object, and how, where, and when, must now be referred, to the ethnologists and archaeologists. The answer may throw some light on the origin and early cultivation of maize.” Meanwhile, the Smithsonian hastens to add, it hasn’t any other unsuspected fakes on exhibition.