The samples of corn found at Hank's site were very small charred fragments of corn "cupules," the cup-shaped pieces of cobs that seat the corn kernals. All corn fragments were recovered by the flotation method, a technique of taking soil samples and bathing them in bubbly water so that all of the charred plant remains float to the top. This technique is used to recover fragile materials that are often destroyed by sifting soils through metal screens.
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