Corn on Stick
From Scoggin's journal:
...after a fine sleep...four perfect ears of corn were among the interesting things found today. February 17, 1940
The earliest Fremont corn has been dated to approximately 2000 years ago (Madsen 1989). In some areas corn became well established. In others its cultivation was a part-time activity while hunting and gathering continued.
Mantle's Cave was clearly used for the storage of corn, as evidenced by the thirty-seven pothole storage chambers, most of which were bell-shaped; the two slab lined storage pits; and the eight masonry granaries reported by Burgh and Scoggin (1948). The storage chambers in Mantle's Cave were empty at the time of excavation except for "scraps" of corn. Corn in various forms was found throughout the cave: random kernels, kernels found in some of the bags recovered, and whole cobs and corn on a stick as seen in this photograph.
The corn at Mantle's Cave was identified as a Mexican Pyramidal type, distinct from the corn from the Four Corners area. Today, the distinction still holds and the corn found in most Fremont sites is categorized as Fremont Dent. It differs from Ancestral Puebloan corn in that there are usually more dented kernels, slightly larger tapering cobs, bigger cob diameters and greater row numbers. Madsen (1989) suggests that the sticks may have been used for roasting the corn or to keep rodents away while the corn was in storage.