Jan 26, 2024 · Scientists are learning about the oral health and diets of Stone Age people from analyzing ancient chewing gum. By looking at DNA in chewed plant resin dug up in Sweden, researchers painted a...

Dec 17, 2019 · The results, published Tuesday in Nature Communications, highlight the potential of chewed birch pitch as a source of ancient human and microbial DNA, which can be used to shed light on the ...

Jan 24, 2024 · Samples of this birch pitch still embedded with 10,000-year-old tooth marks were discovered in Sweden several decades ago, but a recent study has revealed more about what the prehistoric...

Apr 5, 2021 · Researchers in Denmark have discovered an ancient piece of “chewing gum” still containing the full human genome of its chewer. Remarkably, that ancient gum was last chewed on 5,700 years ago. Archaeologists unearthed this wad of history during excavations on the Danish island of Lolland in 2019.

Dec 17, 2019 · Carbon dating showed the gum to be about 5,700 years old, meaning the chewer lived around when humans stopped hunting and gathering and started farming and domesticating animals. The human DNA pulled from the pitch highlighted her darker skin, darker hair and blue eyes, common among hunter-gatherers of that time and place.

Mar 8, 2024 · Chewing gum is a big part of American pop culture, but its origins are far older. Learn about how an indigenous substance influenced the chewing gum of today.

Dec 17, 2019 · 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...

Dec 17, 2019 · The ancient birch gum in Scandinavia preserved enough DNA to reconstruct the full human genome of its ancient chewer, identify the microbes that lived in her mouth, and even reveal the menu of...

Jan 25, 2024 · DNA extracted from ancient chewing gum, used by teenagers in Sweden around 10,000 years ago, is providing valuable insights into the Stone Age diet and oral health. A picture shows ancient tar-like black resin next to two casts of the gum.

Dec 17, 2019 · More than 5700 years ago, a girl spat out a wad of chewing gum at what is now an archaeological site in Denmark. Today, researchers report in Nature Communications that they have sequenced a full genome from that gum, the first time they have extracted so much information from anything other than ancient bones or teeth.