Guilá Naquitz Cave

Guilá Naquitz Cave in Oaxaca, Mexico is the site of early domestication of several food crops, including teosinte (an ancestor of maize), squash from the genus Cucurbita, bottle gourds (Lagenaria siceraria), and beans.^[2][3][4][5] This site is the location of the earliest known evidence for domestication of any crop on the continent, Cucurbita pepo, as well as the earliest known domestication of maize.^[6] Macrofossil evidence for both crops is present in the cave. However, in the case of maize, pollen studies and geographical distribution of modern maize suggests that maize was domesticated in another region of Mexico.^[7] The cave is 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) northwest of Mitla at the base of a cliff that rises 300 metres (980 ft) above a semiarid valley floor at an elevation of 1,926 metres (6,319 ft). There are five strata as deep as 140 centimetres (55 in).^[7][8] The entrance to the cave is 8 by 10 metres (26 by 33 ft).^[9] It is at the very eastern end of the Oaxaca Valley.^[10]

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilá Naquitz Cave
• Page 205 - Hunt, P., 2007, Ten Discoveries that Rewrote History: Penguin, New York, 226p.