• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

10,000-Year-Old Chewing Gum Reveals Stone Age Diet And Poor Oral Health

January 19, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Ten millennia ago, a bunch of teenagers in what is now Sweden chewed up and spat out pieces of birch resin, in much the same way that modern kids might stick their used gum to the underside of a school desk. Little did these ancient adolescents know, however, that their discarded chewings would one day be analyzed by scientists, revealing that they had eaten deer, trout, and nuts, processed wolf and fox furs with their teeth, and suffered from gum disease.

The three pieces of chewed birch pitch – which was used as an adhesive during the Stone Age – were originally discovered in the 1990s at a site called Huseby Klev. Based on the age of the sediment in which the samples were found, researchers estimate that they are between 9,540 and 9,890 years old.

Advertisement

To confirm that the wrinkly specimens had indeed been chewed by humans, the study authors compared the microbial DNA sequences present in the resin with both modern and ancient salivary microbiomes. In doing so, they detected high levels of bacteria associated with periodontitis (gum disease), such as Treponema denticola, Streptococcus anginosus, and Slackia exigua.

Other bacterial species including Streptococcus sobrinus and Parascardovia denticolens – both of which are indicators of tooth decay – were also found to be abundant in the ancient chewing gum. Commenting on these findings in a statement, study author Dr Emrah Kırdök explained that “there is a richness of DNA sequences in the chewed mastic from Huseby-Klev, and in it we find both the bacteria that we know are related to periodontitis, and DNA from plants and animals that they had chewed before”.

Indeed, in addition to highlighting the poor oral health of Mesolithic Scandinavians, the genetic information extracted from the gum revealed the various different plant and animal species that had passed between the chewers’ lips shortly before they gnawed on the resin. These included food sources like hazelnuts, apples, brown trout, red deer, and limpets.

Bird species such as mallard, tufted duck, and European robin were also detected, indicating that Stone Age Scandinavians may have used their teeth to process the bones of these creatures into tools, in addition to eating them. 

Advertisement

The researchers also identified the DNA of several canids, including red fox, arctic fox, and wolf. According to the authors, these animals were probably hunted for their furs, and people may have used their teeth at some point in the preparation of these pelts.

Among the other plants detected in the gum was mistletoe, which the researchers say might have been used medicinally or to produce poison for arrowheads.

Summing up the team’s findings, study author Professor Anders Götherström said that the DNA in the ancient gum “provides a snapshot of the life of a small group of hunter-gatherers on the Scandinavian west coast.” 

“We know that these teenagers were eating deer, trout, and hazelnuts 9,700 years ago on the west coast of Scandinavia, while at least one of them had severe problems with his teeth,” he said.

Advertisement

The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Paris ramps up security as jihadist attacks trial starts
  2. Cricket-‘Western bloc’ has let Pakistan down, board chief says
  3. Ancient Bison Found In Permafrost Is So Well Preserved Scientists Want To Clone It
  4. Where Inside Us Do We Feel Love?

Source Link: 10,000-Year-Old Chewing Gum Reveals Stone Age Diet And Poor Oral Health

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • For Centuries, Nobody Knew Why Swiss Cheese Has Holes. Then, The Mystery Was Solved.
  • Scientists Studied The Infamous “Chicago Rat Hole” And They Have Some Bad News
  • Massive 166-Million-Year-Old Sauropod Footprints Become The Longest Dinosaur Trackway In Europe
  • Do Spiders Dream? “After Watching Hundreds Of Spiders, There Is No Doubt In My Mind”
  • IFLScience Meets: ESA Astronaut Rosemary Coogan On Astronaut Training And The Future Of Space Exploration
  • What’s So Weird About The Methuselah Star, The Oldest We’ve Found In The Universe?
  • Why Does Red Wine Give Me A Headache? Many Scientists Blame It On The Grape Skins
  • Manta Rays Dive Way Deeper Than We Thought – Up To 1.2 Kilometers – To Explore The Seas
  • Prof Brian Cox Explains What He Finds “Remarkable” About Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Story
  • Pioneering “Pregnancy Test” Could Identify Hormones In Skeletons Over 1,000 Years Old
  • The First Neolithic Self-Portrait? Stony Human Face Emerges In 12,000-Year-Old Ruins At Karahan Tepe
  • Women Are Diagnosed With ADHD 5 Years Later Than Men, Even With Worse Symptoms
  • What Is Cryptozoology? We Explore The History And Mystery Of This Controversial Field
  • The Universe’s “Red Sky Paradox” Just Got Darker: Most Stars Might Never Host Observers
  • Uranus And Neptune May Not Be “Ice Giants” But The Solar System’s First “Rocky Giants”
  • COVID-19 Can Alter Sperm And Affect Brain Development In Offspring, Causing Anxious Behavior
  • Why Do Spiders’ Legs Curl Up Like That When They’re Dead?
  • “Dead Men’s Fingers” Might Just Be The Strangest Fruit On The Planet
  • The South Atlantic’s Giant Weak Spot In The Earth’s Magnetic Field Is Growing
  • Nearly Half A Century After Being Lost, “Zombie Satellite” LES-1 Began Sending Signals To Earth
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version