Maize may have more importance in pre-European Michigan than previously thought

Indigenous people who were the first to inhabit the area now known as Michigan—before the Europeans arrived—may have cultivated maize (corn) more prominently than previously assumed for such a northern population. Researchers from the University of New Hampshire found that using modern global satellite data in a novel way helped them connect archaeological features—like ancient burial mounds—to environmental data of lake temperatures and gain new insights into past human–environment relationships.