Maize: Did you mean...?

Raising sugar cane could be a very profitable business, but producing refined sugar was a highly labour-intensive process. For this reason, European colonial settlers in Africa and the Americas used slaves on their plantations, almost all...

Sub-Saharan Africa was explored by Roman expeditions between 19 BCE - 90 CE, most likely in an effort to locate the sources of valuable trade goods and establish routes to bring them to the seaports on the coast of North Africa, thereby minimizing...

The Maya sites of San Gervasio (on the island of Cozumel) and Tulum (on the mainland of Mexico in Quintana Roo) are often overlooked for the better-known Chichen Itza or other spectacular ruins further inland but both these locations have...

The Hymn to Nisaba (c. 3rd millennium BCE) is a poem praising Nisaba, the Sumerian goddess of writing and accounts who also served as scribe of the gods. The poem is officially dedicated to Enki, the god of wisdom (sometimes given as her...

De-Ka-Nah-Wi-Da and Hiawatha is the written account of the oral history of the origins of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, detailing how the great peacemaker Dekanawida (De-Ka-Nah-Wi-Da) met Chief Hiawatha and established peace between...

The Bay of Islands is a subtropical region in New Zealand's far north and is a popular destination for big-game fishing, sailing, and dolphin watching. It is an area rich in the history of Maori (Māori in their own language) and European...

Join World History Encyclopedia as they chat with Tim Pauketat all about his new book Gods of Thunder: How Climate Change, Travel, and Spirituality Reshaped Precolonial America, published by Oxford University Press. Kelly: Thank you so much...

Yum Caax, a Maya god of maize. Modern relief inspired by a Maya hieroglyph. (Teplice Botanical Gardens, Czech Republic)

A ceramic figure-vessel representing a priest of the Zapotec civilization. Oaxaca, Mexico, 250-600 CE. The figure wears a mask, feathered headdress, and a medallion which represents a maize field. (St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri)

Indian Corn – also known as Flint Corn and Calico Corn – one of the three types of maize cultivated by the Native Peoples of North America.