Chewing gum from 3,700BC ... and the girl who chewed it
ONE of the world’s oldest pieces of chewing gum has helped to build a picture of the girl who chomped on it 5,700 years ago.
DNA found on the grey gum – made from birch bark – revealed the teenage ‘chewer’ had dark hair, dark skin and blue eyes – and ate duck and hazelnuts.
The find on the island of Lolland in southern Denmark is the first time that an entire ancient human genome has been extracted from anything other than bones. The Stone Age girl – who looks very different from the current mainly fair-haired Danish stereotype – has been nicknamed Lola to reflect the place where she lived.
Analysis of her DNA shows she was related to hunter gatherers in mainland Europe. Associate Professor Hannes Schroeder, of Copenhagen University, said: ‘It is amazing to get a complete ancient human genome from anything other than bone. We also retrieved DNA from oral microbes and important human pathogens, which makes this a very valuable source of ancient DNA.’
The find – reported in the journal Nature Communications – revealed the girl ate hazelnuts and duck as DNA traces of these were found on the lump of gum. The birch pitch gum was created by heating bark. It has been used as a glue for 760,000 years with cavemen sticking wooden handles onto stone tools with it. Experts say chewing birch pitch may have relieved toothache or other ailments as it is mildly antiseptic.
It is not the oldest chewing gum ever found – eight pieces of similar birch pitch which were spat out 10,000 years ago were discovered in Sweden in the 1990s.