“…The first question to be answered pertained to the chronology and geography of the diffusion of maize in the countries considered. Although it is a well-known fact that the diffusion of maize followed a west to east direction starting from Spain, a full and comparative overview of the spread of this plant is still lacking; we can mainly count on researches carried out at a narrower regional scale, also in the case of Italy (Coppola 1979, Levi 1979, Fornasin 1999, Gasparini 2002Mocarelli, Vaquero Piñeiro 2018). The countries between the eastern Alps and the eastern Adriatic coast, addressed in this volume, represent the ideal extension of such a west-east maize diffusion route.…”