10,000-Year-Old “Chewing Gum” from Sweden: these pieces of birch tar were chewed by teenagers in prehistoric Sweden, and the DNA and microbes extracted from the tar indicate that the teens often consumed hazelnuts, deer, and trout, and that they suffered from severe gum disease [3880×4786]
by SixteenSeveredHands
6 Comments
Researchers were able to extract DNA and oral microbes from these ancient lumps of birch tar, providing valuable insights into the health and diet of the individuals who chewed them nearly 10,000 years ago.
As [this article](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/23/ancient-chewing-gum-stone-age-teenagers-diet) explains:
> DNA from a type of “chewing gum” used by teenagers in Sweden 10,000 years ago is shedding new light on the stone age diet and oral health, according to research.
The wads of gum are made from pieces of birch bark pitch, a tar-like black resin, and carry clearly visible teethmarks.
> Hunter-gatherers probably chewed the resin “to be used as glue” to assemble tools and weapons, said Anders Götherström, the co-author of the study published in Scientific Reports. “This is a most-likely hypothesis – they could have been chewed just because they liked them or because they thought that they had some medicinal purpose,” he said.
> “There were several chewing gum [samples] and both males and females chewed them. Most of them seem to have been chewed by teenagers. There was some kind of age to it,” Götherström said.
> Götherström and his team of paleontologists at Stockholm University were able to determine, again from the DNA found in the gum, that the teenagers’ stone age diet included deer, trout and hazelnuts.
Researchers found evidence that the teenagers’ diet also included red fox, duck, apple, European robin, turtle dove, mistletoe, and limpet.
A microbial analysis of the birch tar suggests that oral pathogens were common in these communities, and some individuals suffered from severe gum disease:
> In addition, in one piece chewed by a teenage girl, researchers found a number of bacteria indicating a severe case of periodontitis, a severe gum infection.
Did their mouths just hurt all the time?
They should check the DNA for living ancestors like Cheddar Man in England, he was from a similar time period.
What would have caused the gum disease? They would have so little sugar and simple carbohydrate in their diet
how did they accurately age the chewer? Tooth inprint?
I read an article not too long ago about the increasing evidence that gum disease is in fact, a communicable disease, at least to some extent, and is passed on from parents to children by kissing and food sharing. Also can be passed between adults. Horrible idea.