Unearthing Secrets: What a 5,700-Year-Old Chewing Gum Reveals About Our Ancient Ancestors
“These birch pitch chewing gums are kind of special in terms of how well the DNA is preserved,” said co-author of the study published in Nature Communications, Hannes Schroeder.
“It’s as well-preserved as some of the best petrous [skull] bones that we’ve analyzed, and they are kind of the holy grail when it comes to ancient DNA preservation,” Schroeder added.
Birch pitch is made by heating the bark of the birch tree and was used as a reliable prehistoric glue across Scandinavia. It was used to construct weapons by combining stone parts to wooden handles.
Many of these ancient birch pitch pieces also contain toothmarks, which suggests that Stone Age persons likely chewed the adhesive as well.
Experts believe the gum was chewed in order to render it malleable or even to alleviate toothaches as the bark of the birch tree has antiseptic properties. The pitch could also have been used to clean teeth and ease hunger pains.
Luckily, the gum’s antiseptic and water-resistant characteristics also allowed it to efficiently preserve DNA.
“It is amazing to have gotten a complete ancient human genome from anything other than bone,” said Schroeder according to SciTech Daily.
Researchers could glean such details about the human which chewed the pitch as gender, disease, and lifestyle.
Indeed, the human genome showed that the chewer was female and genetically more closely related to hunter-gatherers from mainland Europe than to central Scandinavians of her time and locale.
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