Summary
23 January 2012
A new study suggests that people living along the coast of northern Peru were eating popcorn 1,000 years earlier than previously thought. Researchers say corncobs found at an ancient site in Peru suggest that the inhabitants used them for making flour and popcorn.
Reporter
Vanessa Buschschluter
A bowl of popcorn.
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Report
Maize was first domesticated in Mexico nearly nine-thousand years ago from a wild grass.
It was assumed it took a good few thousand of years to reach South America, where it is an important part of today's diet.
But corn cobs found at ancient archaeological sites in northern Peru indicate it was being eaten by people living there as long as 6,700 years ago.
And, tests carried out on the ancient cobs suggest it was being used in more varied ways than previously believed: namely for making flour and popcorn!
This would mean that in some areas people were making popcorn even before they had pottery. How exactly they went about making it, especially if they lacked pottery, is not clear.
Even less clear is just when they would have eaten it, in an age before movies.
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Vocabulary
- maize
a tall plant grown for its large yellow grains of corn
- domesticated
changed into something suitable for human consumption
- assumed
believed to be true
- diet
the food and drink we eat regularly
- corn cobs
the long hard parts of the maize plant that the yellow grains grow on
- archaeological sites
places where historical remains of buildings and objects have been found in the ground
- indicate
show it is likely
- pottery
pots and dishes made with clay that have been baked in the oven
- lacked
had not enough of
- an age
a particular period of history
