Combining botany, archaeology, and art history, Corn in Clay provides a novel approach to the study of contact between ancient American cultures Mary Eubanks integrates evidence from replicas of maize on ancient pottery vessels - from the Oaxaca region of Mexico and the northern coast of Peru - with other biological, archaeological, and geographic evidence to establish a considerable degree of contact between Mesoamerica and the Andean region in pre-Columbian times.

The interdisciplinary nature of this study will make it valuable to botanists, geneticists, and agronomists, as well as archaeologists and anthropologists.