Ancient popcorn discovered in Peru

Posted on Sunday, 22 January, 2012 | Comment icon

13 comments | News tip by: BFB

Image credit: CC 2.0 cyclonebill@flickr

Some of the oldest known popcorn ever found dating back to 6,000 years has been discovered in Peru.

It's a food that's generally associated with a modern society of cinema-goers but popcorn has actually been part of our diet for thousands of years. "Corn was first domesticated in Mexico nearly 9,000 years ago from a wild grass called teosinte," said museum curator Dolores Piperno. "Our results show that only a few thousand years later corn arrived in South America where its evolution into different varieties that are now common in the Andean region began."

People living along the coast of Peru were eating popcorn 1,000 years earlier than previously reported and before ceramic pottery was used there, according to a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences co-authored by Dolores Piperno.

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Source: PhysOrg.com

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Recent comments on this story

#4 Posted by mxcx on 22 January, 2012, 15:32

Why is there a picture of a 4" bud? Did I miss something?

#5 Posted by rashore on 22 January, 2012, 16:19

That's not bud... That's an ancient corn cob. Proto-Confite Morocho.

#6 Posted by Device on 22 January, 2012, 18:07

They could eat their popcorn at the human sacrifices. :)

#7 Posted by Razer on 22 January, 2012, 21:29

Too bad they didn't have a movie to watch while eating that popcorn!

#8 Posted by The Mistress of Shades on 23 January, 2012, 9:39

Whoa, righteous! I love popcorn!

#9 Posted by Jaygatz on 24 January, 2012, 0:24

Because mxcx, weed leads to eating popcorn.

#10 Posted by Hybrid89 on 24 January, 2012, 13:52

awesome lol

#11 Posted by ...:::*ArorA*:::... on 31 January, 2012, 2:25

tripple butter i'd hope

#12 Posted by MindfieldzX on 25 April, 2012, 2:05

Could have fooled me. without smelling it, I would have tossed into grinder / wrapped / smoked / died probably. It looks definately more like a 4" bud than it does a corn cob lol

#13 Posted by Hilander on 27 April, 2012, 1:15

Everyone likes popcorn.

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