BBC Learning English
Words in the News
Popcorn older than cinema!
23rd January 2012
Words in the News
© British Broadcasting Corporation 2012
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bbclearningenglish.com
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. The BBC's Vanessa Buschschluter
reports.
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.
Vanessa Buschschluter
, BBC
