Humans ate popcorn at least 6,700 years ago.
Corn, or maize, is among the world’s oldest domestic crops, first cultivated from a wild grass called teosinte around 9,000 years ago in what’s now southern Mexico. A few thousand years later, corn arrived in South America, where at least 6,700 years ago, popcorn was born.
Archaeologists discovered evidence of the oldest known popcorn, along with several other varieties of corn, near Peru’s northern coast in 2012. Because South America was outside the area where teosinte naturally grows, ancient farmers could breed new types of corn far more efficiently without worrying about cross-pollination from wild plants.
In order for corn to pop, it needs to have a relatively tough outer shell that can trap heat and moisture inside for long enough to build pressure. Today, we typically remove the kernels from the husk and dry them before cooking them — often in the microwave. Popcorn predates even basic pottery in the region, so the first people to snack on popcorn probably just held the cob directly over the fire.
