Posted on 01/21/2012 3:44:10 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Evidence for Oldest Popcorn in South America Discovered
Remy Melina, LiveScience Staff Writer
Date: 20 January 2012 Time: 10:50 AM ET
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 and emeritus staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, told LiveScience. Map of where popcorn originated.
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 researchers also found corn microfossils containing starch grains and phytoliths, which are microscopic particles formed by plants and mainly composed of silicon dioxide. 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Popcorn!
Who the hell cares.and how much did these “takers” get paid.
Oh oh....The American Indians aren’t going to like this.
What movie theater was it found in?
Coincidentally , I just made popcorn , came upstairs to watch Perry Mason via DVD , and this was the top thread ! Orville’s popped in Italian grapeseed oil sprinkled with a soupcon of salt . And a beer chaser ! : )
I’ve always wondered how it is that the first person who made popcorn came to a) obtain the right kind of corn, b) happen to dry it to just the right moisture content, and c) think to heat it over dry heat, to make popcorn. Maybe a wildfire swept through their corn patch, after the corn was somewhat dry, and made popcorn, then the ancient farmer tried to duplicate the process under controlled conditions?
Making popcorn simply would not come to mind, if someone had never seen it before.
Didn’t know we are telepathically connected.:-)
Get a copy of Charles Mann’s recent book “1493.”
ATF has defined popcorn as explosive ammunition.
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Thanks TigerLikesRooster. They probably had to invent it because there were already Demwits back then. |
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The discovery of popcorn is trivial compared with the discovery of, for example, making bread with yeast.
WHAT would FR be WITHOUT popcorn???
“Wow. Without fire-retardant-dropping airplanes and water-dropping helicopters, it appears this lightning-caused fire has gotten out of control and is burning through Bob’s corn field. Look at what’s happening to the burning corn! It fluffs up! Does this give you any ideas?”
“Yeah, Let’s burn down Bob’s hut. I can’t stand the guy. He’s always showing off that new rock knife of his and my wife says it makes our wood knife look cheap.”
Ogg: First, we make the fire.
Nog: What for?
Ogg: To make the popcorn.
Nog: What for?
Ogg: To have snack while watching DVD.
Nog: Oh.
The use of yeast has probably been around longer than making pop corn - by the way, I have nothing to back that up. Yeast was used at least as far back as biblical history goes, pop corn, according to the article, is thought to have been made as far back as 3,000 to 6,000 years, which almost is the same as "biblical history. Wonder which usage is oldest?
Thanks for the ping, I don't often comment on these threads unless I have a question.
Post 6. Not bad. Not surprised either, just get the pain over with early, quickly.
I'm sure that's what happened. Adding salt was just a natural reaction to enhance the bland taste but the addition of butter had to be divine intervention....
Additional research in the area has also uncovered what appear to be ancient boxes of Good N' Plenty and Milk Duds.
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