Rancher Finds a “Pot of Gold” Containing a Perfectly Preserved 1000-Year-Old Pueblo Variety of Corn By Sara Burrows – Blog Post #1198 – Ancient Agriculture From The Field of Master Mind Farming (MMFAR)

😲 Making Discoveries from the Field of Master Mind Farming (MMFAR) 👨‍🌾

 

Shared from the research of: Joseph Mercado 🤠

Article Author: Susan Burrows 👩‍🦱

Content Contributor: Return To Now 🌎

To: Farm Lover 🚜

Blog Post #1198 📌

Re: Corn Preserved for 1,000 Years 🌽

Date and Time: Tuesday, February 8, 2022 at 10:24 a.m. ⏲

 

Dear Farm Lover,

The indigenous corn has a gene that allows it to fix nitrogen from the air, eliminating the need for synthetic fertilizer.

A Colorado rancher wandered in to a cave looking for stray cattle and stumbled upon a “pot of gold.”

At first he thought it was just a peculiar round rock, but he soon realized it was a beautiful ancient coiled pinch pot made by the Pueblo people.

He knew it was a special artifact and proudly displayed it on his mantle for decades (since the early 1970s), but it wasn’t until recently that his family learned just how special it was.

The rancher’s family, who requested anonymity, put the rare Pueblo pot up for sale in 2015, and another Colorado rancher/artifact collector named Steve Campbell jumped at the opportunity to buy it.

Though the lid of the 10-inch pot was sealed shut with pine pitch, Campbell discovered something through a small crack in the bottom of the pot.

He opened the hole just enough to pour out a golden treasure – 5 pounds of a long-lost, 1000-year-old variety of Pueblo corn.

“The corn kernels are in about perfect condition. No moisture, no sun, and sealed in that pot for 1,000 years, the corn looks like you can’t believe,” Campbell told AgWeb.

Campbell donated corn samples to several universities, where scientists are interested in the variety’s ability to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, so that it doesn’t require synthetic fertilizer.

It’s a lost genetic trait that they’d like to introduce to modern varieties.“

The scientists want to know how this particular corn grew so well and if it’s now extinct,” says Campbell, whose grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee.

“They were probably living under that overhang area,” Campbell says of the cave where the pot was found.

“If an archeologist excavates that overhang, they’ll find remains of habitation.

That pot was placed in there and packed with 5 pounds of corn for a food source, maybe if something went wrong with the next year’s harvest.

It was surplus and they were depending on it. Something happened to those Indians and they weren’t able to return.”

Content Source: Return To Now