They may not have had television sets, but ancient Peruvians did share one part of our movie-watching culture: popcorn.
Researchers have found evidence that societies living along the coast of Peru were eating the air-filled snack about 1,000 years earlier than previously estimated — even predating the use of ceramic pottery.
Corn husks, stalks, cobs and tassels (pollen-producing flowers on corn) dating from 6,700 to 3,000 years ago were unearthed at Paredones and Huaca Prieta, two sites on Peru's northern coast, by American and Peruvian researchers.
"The evidence was unearthed during the past three years," study researcher Dolores Piperno, curator of New World archaeology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, told LiveScience.
The characteristics of the corncobs suggest that the sites' ancient inhabitants prepared and ate corn in several ways, including making corn flour and popcorn.
The Peruvian popcorn is the oldest macrofossil evidence for popcorn in South America. Despite the presence of these corn products, corn was still not an important part of the ancient people's diet, the researchers said.
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TXT 24
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