Chewing gum may seem like a modern habit but that’s apparently not quite the case. Scientists have recovered DNA that is nearly 10,000 years old from gum that was chewed by people in Scandinavia during the Mesolithic – or Stone Age – period.
This gum was used as glue to make tools – the chewing is believed to have helped make it more pliable and sticky. They may not have chewed it for pleasure, but recreational chewing of resin and gum has been known of since ancient times. The gum itself was found at Huseby Klev, a Mesolithic site in western Sweden.
It’s difficult to find DNA from ancient specimens because it is so often degraded. Most samples of ancient DNA are obtained from bones or teeth. Such remains are rare and precious, so grinding them into powder to extract DNA is rarely encouraged. Material that is meant to be chewed but not swallowed has been found in many sites, but is often disregarded during excavations.
The knowledge that human DNA can be obtained from bits of old chewing gum is a breakthrough that offers fascinating possibilities for future work. Through this seemingly inconsequential scrap of ancient detritus come several fascinating insights into life 9,800 years ago.
The researchers sequenced the entire genomes of three individuals who had chewed gum and made tools on the site and compared them with contemporary genomes from 10 other sites, spread across Europe from Samara in Russia to La Brana in Spain.
Their stone tools largely consisted of small flakes of flint, called microliths, carefully shaped and glued into wooden or bone hafts. Harpoon points made of bone with small barbs of flint glued in have also been found and arrowheads made of flint that have been carefully shaped by the technique of pressure flaking.
These prehistoric people were genetically Scandinavian but more closely related to people from further west and south than to eastern populations, even though they favoured a style of tool-making prevalent in the East. This shows it’s not always safe to make assumptions about where ancient people come from based on their culture.
Fluid gender roles
Two of the three individuals whose genomes were successfully sequenced were female. There has been a perception among some archaeologists that females in prehistory were relegated to a purely domestic role and had little to do with “masculine” tasks such as making tools.
These findings suggest that gender roles were rather more fluid, clearly supporting the idea that females were involved in the prehistoric tool industry. The fact that some of the eight samples of mastic that were found had impressions of milk teeth in them also suggests that some of those chewing the mastic were between five and 18 years of age.
It would be unthinkable in modern times to allow a child of five loose with these sharp and dangerous hunting tools. In perspective though, life expectancy was around 30 years, so a teenager would not only be considered fully adult but probably have a family of their own.
Familiar environment
The gum that was chewed by the tool makers at Husebey Kelv was birch pitch, a dark, sticky substance, similar to tar, that is distilled from birch bark by heating it to around 420°C without letting air get to it. Because it’s very viscous (it is solid and rubbery at ambient temperature) it can be used to waterproof objects and as a glue. It also tells us something about the environment in which the people lived – birch woods rather than pine forest.
This suggests the people lived in an environment similar to parts of Scotland today, where birch woodland is prevalent. Agriculture had started elsewhere, but there’s nothing to say that these people were practising it. The presence of bones and tools place them as hunter gatherers.
The harpoons suggest that life at Huleseby Klev revolved around hunting marine mammals and fish. One can imagine that the birch pitch would be good for waterproofing boats made from animal hide, or even birch bark canoes.
This research gives us a greater insight into the lives and origins of our recent ancestors. Like all good research, this opens up a whole raft of new questions.
If females were making tools, were they also using them to hunt? What was the life of a Mesolithic child in Scandinavia like? Did Mesolithic people chew gum for recreational, hygienic and medicinal reasons, as other cultures did? Why did Scandinavian populations continue to use the Eastern European technologies rather than a mixture of Eastern and Western? Some of these questions will never have answers, but every new finding sheds a tiny beam of light onto the distant past.
A previous 2019 study of the wads of gum mapped the genetic profile of the individuals who had chewed it. This time, Gotherstrom 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.
DNA recovery was very high (26.4ng on average) for swabs of the gum extracted using the PCIA method. For the whole con- trol gum samples, the highest DNA quantity (142.7 ng on average) was observed using the QIAamp method (Supplementary Table 1 and Figure 1(c)).
What Ancient 'Chewing Gum' Can Tell Us About Life 5,700 Years Ago. Scientists say that for the first time, they've managed to extract an entire ancient human genome from anything other than human bones or teeth. It told them a lot about the person chewing the gum.
There, they discovered a clump of birch-bark tar, complete with teeth marks. Finish archeologist Sami Viljamaa says the chunk is between 5,500 and 6,000 years old and that Neanderthals used it to treat sore gums and stomach distress.
How is it even possible for DNA to survive for 5,700 years in a piece of chewing gum? In part, it's because of the substance itself. The DNA was found in birch tar, which was used as a type of resin for tasks like attaching stone tools to wooden handles.
Most DNA testing companies discourage testers from eating, smoking, drinking, chewing gum, brushing teeth, or using mouthwash in the half-hour before taking a DNA test. While foreign particles from food, liquids, toothpaste, and tobacco do not alter DNA, they can mask it or cause it to degrade(2).
According to the International Chewing Gum Association, gum is a "stable product" and "not required by law to be labeled with an expiration date in most countries." Old gum may become brittle or lose its taste over time, but generally remains safe to chew.
Although no human remains have been found at the site of Syltholm, archaeologists found a wad of gum from birch pitch. The DNA in the gum was so well preserved that researchers were able to offer a glimpse of the girl who had chewed it and a snapshot of her life.
Some of the first chewing gums, made of birch tar and other natural substances, have been preserved for thousands of years, including a 5,700-year-old piece of Stone Age gum unearthed in Denmark.
The New England settlers picked up this practice, and in 1848, John B. Curtis developed and sold the first commercial chewing gum called The State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum.
Or she might have simply been enjoying what amounted to Neolithic chewing gum. In any case, when she discarded the tar, it was sealed away under layers of sand and silt for some 5,700 years until a team of archaeologists found it.
The oldest flavored gum that is still available today is Black Jack, a licorice gum that was created by Thomas Adams (b. 1818). Adams' foray into the chewing gum manufacturing world began when he was looking for a way to make a cheap synthetic rubber for bicycle and carriage tires.
Background. A ban on the sale, import and manufacture of chewing gum in Singapore took effect on 3 January 1992, four days after the ban was announced in The Straits Times. The ban encompassed all substances made from the “gum base of vegetable or synthetic origin”, such as “bubble gum or dental chewing gum”.
More research is needed, but the researchers suggested that people who experience migraine might want to limit their gum chewing. Chewing too much gum could cause problems such as jaw pain, headaches, diarrhea, and tooth decay.
Chewing gum may be the only food which intentionally contains plastic, but it may not be the top source of the plastic that is showing up in human bodies and waste. There are brands of chewing gum which do not contain plastic, but there is currently no evidence that chewing gum base is harmful.
Do not eat, drink, smoke, chew gum, brush your teeth, or use mouthwash for at least 30 minutes prior to providing your sample. Collect the recommended volume of saliva. The recommended volume of saliva to provide is 2 mL, or about ½ teaspoon. Your saliva sample should be just above the fill line.
We cannot extract DNA from swabs, blood, hair, urine, or anything besides saliva. If you have difficulty producing enough saliva in one try, add a little saliva into the tube and refrigerate it until you can add more. Repeat until your saliva reaches the line on the tube.
DNA is contained in blood, sem*n, skin cells, tissue, organs, muscle, brain cells, bone, teeth, hair, saliva, mucus, perspiration, fingernails, urine, feces, etc. Where can DNA evidence be found at a crime scene? DNA evidence can be collected from virtually anywhere.
Since DNA is the blueprint for life, everything living contains DNA. For this experiment, we like to use green split peas. But there are lots of other DNA sources too, such as: Spinach.
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