The Oscar For Best Snack Goes To Popcorn, The 6,000-Year-Old Aztec Gold
By Adam Cole
MARCH 1, 2018
Popcorn is truly ancient. Archaeologists have uncovered popcorn kernels that are 4,000 years old. They were so well-preserved, they could still pop. In 2012, scientists discovered popcorn cobs that were grown even earlier — more than 6,000 years ago.
Dolores Piperno, a paleobotanist with the Smithsonian’s Tropical Research Insitute, says corn, and specifically popcorn, helped lay the foundations for the Aztec empire.
“When you have a very highly productive crop like corn, that makes the rise of high civilizations possible,” she says.
Piperno grows the wild, great-grandaddy of modern corn — a weird grain called teosinte. It has just a few kernels on each stalk, and they’re too hard to eat or to grind into flour. But teosinte has a special property that almost makes up for these shortcomings: It can pop.
More:
https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2018/03/01/the-oscar-for-best-snack-goes-to-popcorn-the-6000-year-old-aztec-gold/
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