Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Student Finds 5000-Year-Old Chewing Gum

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Mon Aug 20, 2007 01:29 PM
from the ur-tree-has-a-flavor dept.
itsthebin writes "Sarah Pickin, 23, found the lump of birch bark tar — complete with neolithic tooth prints — on a dig in Finland. Ms Pickin's tutor at the University of Derby, Professor Trevor Brown, said birch bark tar contained phenols, which are antiseptic compounds. 'It is generally believed that neolithic people found that by chewing this stuff if they had gum infections it helped to treat the condition. It's particularly significant because well-defined tooth imprints were found on the gum which Sarah discovered,' he said. Ms Pickin was on a volunteer program at the Kierikki Centre on the west coast of Finland when she made the find."

Related Stories

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

Student Finds 5000-Year-Old Chewing Gum 50 Comments More | Login /

 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More | Login
Keybindings Beta
Q W E
A S D
Loading ... Please wait.
  • Deja vu (Score:5, Funny)

    by MyLongNickName (822545) on Monday August 20, @01:31PM (#20295389) Journal
    I tried the same thing when my teacher found me sticking some on the bottom of my desk. She didn't believe me.
  • I just gotta ask.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nick Driver (238034) on Monday August 20, @01:32PM (#20295393)
    Was it found stuck under the top of a 5000 yr old desk?
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      Was it found stuck under the top of a 5000 yr old desk?

      I think it was found on the bottom of a 5000 yr old shoe.

    • Where it was found (Score:5, Funny)

      by Hoi Polloi (522990) on Monday August 20, @01:44PM (#20295571)
      It was found in a brand new Topps baseball card pack. Topps said "Most of the gum we package with our cards is about 5000-6000 years old."
      [ Parent ]
      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        It was found in a brand new Topps baseball card pack.
        In the pack, along with the gum were the rookie cards of Roger Clemens, Juan Franco, Tom Glavine, Orlando Hernandez and Jamie Moyer.
  • Singapore (Score:5, Funny)

    This kind of makes me wonder if anyone 5,000 years from now will ever know that Singapore existed...
  • Double you pleasure, double your fun.

    Even the cave man knew that.
    • Re: (Score:2)

      eclectro said:
      > Even the cave man knew that.

      You guys are underestimating cave men! Haven't you seen the Geico commercials? http://www.cavemanscrib.com/ [cavemanscrib.com]

      What I want to know is... how the heck did they know that the broken amber ring was used as payment f
    • Re:Needs to be said (Score:4, Funny)

      by Pojut (1027544) on Monday August 20, @01:59PM (#20295717) Homepage
      "You know, when I see those two twins on that Doublemint commercial? I'm almost embarrassed to say this but uh... I ain't thinkin' about gum..." -Bill Hicks
      [ Parent ]
      • You'd have to be pretty desperate to be interested in cavewomen

        Unless you're that Geico caveman dude...?
  • Photo Caption (Score:5, Funny)

    by Gadgetfreak (97865) on Monday August 20, @01:34PM (#20295429)
    Seems like that photo caption isn't the best place to make that kind of typo!
    • Re: (Score:2)

      i dont get it, but i am an engineer, and dont speak english good and stuff ...
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      Here is the photo caption from the article, for those looking for it:

      stone age "chewing cum"

      (about 2/3 down the page)

  • Interesting fact... (Score:5, Funny)

    Fact: 4 out of 5 neolithic dentists surveyed would recommend birch bark tar to their patients who chew tar.
    • Re:Interesting fact... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ma++i+ude (580592) on Monday August 20, @01:56PM (#20295671) Homepage
      You may be more correct than you think. Birch sap contains xylitol [wikipedia.org], the sugar that's actually good for your teeth. It's still used in chewing gum, especially (and almost exclusively) in Finland where it was first discovered but increasingly in other countries as well. Find it in a supermarket near you.
      [ Parent ]
      • Re:Interesting fact... (Score:5, Informative)

        by evanbd (210358) on Monday August 20, @02:13PM (#20295863)

        Just to be pedantic...

        Xylitol is actually a sugar alcohol, not a "true" sugar. Sorbitol is similar. Both are good for you because the bacteria in your teeth try to digest it, but can't actually get any nutrition from it -- so the energy spent trying is wasted.

        [ Parent ]
      • Re: (Score:2)

        Yes, but which type of birch? To quote Wikipedia, "Birch is the name of any tree of the genus Betula (Bé-tu-la), in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae". The article there goes on to list 32 genetically distinct ty
        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          I wouldn't know if all birches produce xylitol but I guess it's possible if they are related. In Finland sap is collected from both of the common varieties, the silver birch (Betula pendula) and the downy birch (Betula pubescens), of which the latter gives
      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        No it isn't, you would be amazed at the number of periodontally diseased people who have had major heart attacks, strokes, various autoimmune diseases and type 2 diabetes. Cronic infection and inflammation is serious.
  • did it lose its flavor yet?
  • Because of birch tar's long lasting flavor, the average caveman never had to buy another pack. Not so coincidentally, companies began building products with predictable defects. Hence, the birth of a disposable goods society began soon after.
  • Due to this gum's extreme age, the baseball cards sold with it were all rookies.
  • One of the pictures is captioned

    stone age "chewing cum"
    Cue the jokes!
  • Tree Gum (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Stanistani (808333) on Monday August 20, @02:11PM (#20295849) Homepage Journal
    As a youngster, I used to chew pine gum while walking through the woods to relieve thirst. I wasn't aware of any tooth problems.
  • Am I still reading Slashdot? (Score:4, Funny)

    by katarn (110199) on Monday August 20, @02:13PM (#20295865)
    What? An article about a female who has an interest in the sciences, and no one has commented on that yet? Is this still Slashdot?

    --
    Won't someone please think of the trolls?
  • figured... (Score:2)

    I've always wondered how "humans" existed for all these years without a toothbrush. You would think they would have cavities and tons of pains. I would guess that a major factor that contributed to the ancient human was that they didn't have sugar treats
    • Re: (Score:2)

      Not to mention the short life spans. These guys lived to be what? Early 20s or so? Hell, there are people in their early 20s who still don't have all of their secondary teeth. If teeth were being replaced every 10-12 years throughout your life you'd probab
      • Re: (Score:2)

        Actually, I'm pretty sure that lifespans didn't take a dive like that until agriculture and subsistence farming. I think that hunter-gatherers lived much longer, due to a relatively low rate of disease and a better diet.

        Even then, the low "life-expectancy"
    • Re:figured... (Score:5, Informative)

      by BECoole (558920) on Monday August 20, @03:05PM (#20296499)
      Dental Carries didn't become common until man started farming cereal grains. As you guessed, cavities became even more common with the introduction of cheap sugar. You may enjoy this article about primitive diets. http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/nast y_brutish_short.html [westonaprice.org]
      [ Parent ]
  • I have to wonder how they manage to divine the exact history of an item, like

    After that someone made a hole in the ring so that it could still be used as jewellery. It was transported from the Baltic coast c. 5500-6000 years ago as payment for seal skins t
  • Package was found nearby (Score:3, Funny)

    by fishthegeek (943099) on Monday August 20, @02:22PM (#20295961) Journal
    The article doesn't mention the package that was found nearby. It was a wooden box carved with

    Grunt Growl Roar
    Snort Grumble Grunt!
  • Old News (Score:2, Funny)

    Anyone who's collected baseball cards between 1980 and 1994 knows they've been sticking 5000-year-old chewing gum in wax packs for ages already.
  • I came here to chew gum and kick ass. And, I am all out of gu....err...wait...what's this?
  • 5000 BC, not 5000 years old (Score:4, Informative)

    by Annymouse Cowherd (1037080) on Monday August 20, @07:57PM (#20299113) Homepage
    It's 7000 years old.
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      In before mention of ABC Gum.

      Actually, this would have been Aleph Beth Gimmel Gum.

      And now someone please correct my spelling of the Hebrew alphabet.
      • Re: (Score:2)

        Change beth to bet and you're just about as close as you can get without actually using hebrew characters...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      Considering it had antiseptic phenols, I would guess it would 'taste' like anti-septic sprays: like a numb tongue.
      • Re: (Score:2)

        That'll be the anaesthetic, not the anti-septic, that numbs your tongue.
    • Re:Just wondering? (Score:5, Funny)

      by djdavetrouble (442175) on Monday August 20, @01:43PM (#20295543) Homepage Journal
      What was it's flavour?

      ummmm. Birch?
      [ Parent ]
      • Re: (Score:2)

        I can not help but wonder what the Rookie Card that came with the gum would be worth today?
    • Re: (Score:2)

      Yummm, rosin flavor! Hard to blow bubbles with.
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      I would assume it has a similar flavor to modern day birch bark tar, which is similar to birch beer or root beer... Kind of a wintergreen flavor, but not as minty, if that makes any sense at all.... Loggers commonly used to chew on the stuff, and in my c
    • Re: (Score:2)

      it tastes like a BIRCH!