Student Finds 5000-Year-Old Chewing Gum

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."

Deja vu

[MyLongNickName]

I tried the same thing when my teacher found me sticking some on the bottom of my desk. She didn't believe me.

Re:

[Tablizer]

I tried the same thing when my teacher found me sticking some on the bottom of my desk. She didn't believe me.

Tell her to wait 5,000 years.
     

I just gotta ask....

[Nick Driver]

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

Re:

[ArcherB]

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.

Re:

[An ominous Cow art]

I wonder if it would have lost its flavor on a bedpost over 5,000 years.

Where it was found

[Hoi Polloi]

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."

Re:

[owlnation]

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.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[MyLongNickName]

No. Julio was already in his tenth year in the big leagues at this point.

Re:

[PPH]

Stuck to the floor of a 5000 year old movie theater.

Still playing Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Singapore

[Rude Turnip]

This kind of makes me wonder if anyone 5,000 years from now will ever know that Singapore existed...

Re:

[Tablizer]

This kind of makes me wonder if anyone 5,000 years from now will ever know that Singapore existed...

They'd be identified by all the spanking paddles and broken tailbones.
     

ABC

[i3spanky]

It seems that they've discovered the mother of all ABC gum.

Re:

[drpimp]

This also became the first 5000 yr old jawbreaker when someone tried to chew it.

Needs to be said

[eclectro]

Double you pleasure, double your fun.

Even the cave man knew that.

Re:

[Codifex Maximus]

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 for seal skins??

Re:Needs to be said

[Pojut]

"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

Re:

[WormholeFiend]

You'd have to be pretty desperate to be interested in cavewomen

Unless you're that Geico caveman dude...?

Re:Needs to be said

[Pojut]

In the eternal words of Dani Filth (well...I don't know if he coined the phrase but it's on a Cradle of Filth shirt...) "Dead girls don't say no"

Re:

[rts008]

That sounds a lot like the song "Cold Ethel" by Alice Cooper from the early 1970's.

'Cold Ethel never says no.'

Hard to remember that far back right now with my current blood to beer ratio...gotta go whiz...later.

Re:

[ColdWetDog]

That depends on the particular cavewoman [imdb.com].

YMMV

Mouthwash?

[ksd1337]

So, it was the ancient predecessor of mouthwash.

Re:

[TheDreadSlashdotterD]

Anyone know if it's better than listerine?

Which flavor listerine?

[megaditto]

Listerine also has alcohol in it (the yellow one does, at any rate). On the other hand, green listerine has sorbitol which isn't present in the yellow one. But then again, the blue listerine has zinc chloride. To be on the safe side, use multiple flavors at once, then some Scope to be sure.

However, listerine isn't easily re-usable while this treesap gum could be...

Re:

[Greg.Rodden]

Something about re-usable Listerine isn't all that appealing to me.

Re:

[fbjon]

It's probably the same as a xylitol chewing gum, since xylitol is extracted from birch sap.

Photo Caption

[Gadgetfreak]

Seems like that photo caption isn't the best place to make that kind of typo!

Re:

[everphilski]

i dont get it, but i am an engineer, and dont speak english good and stuff ...

Re:

[everphilski]

ok i found it :)

Re:

[Jim Hall]

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

stone age "chewing cum"

(about 2/3 down the page)

Just wondering?

[Daimanta]

What was it's flavour?

Re:

[Dr. Eggman]

Considering it had antiseptic phenols, I would guess it would 'taste' like anti-septic sprays: like a numb tongue.

Re:

[sjf]

That'll be the anaesthetic, not the anti-septic, that numbs your tongue.

Re:Just wondering?

[djdavetrouble]

What was it's flavour?

ummmm. Birch?

Re:

[LifesABeach]

I can not help but wonder what the Rookie Card that came with the gum would be worth today?

Re:

[Hoi Polloi]

Yummm, rosin flavor! Hard to blow bubbles with.

Re:

[Soiden]

I don't know, but now it must taste like worms.

Re:

[FlatLine84]

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 case I tried some whilst in the woods.

Re:

[everphilski]

it tastes like a BIRCH!

Re:

[DDLKermit007]

Cum apparently...read the caption XD

Interesting fact...

[iamdrscience]

Fact: 4 out of 5 neolithic dentists surveyed would recommend birch bark tar to their patients who chew tar.

Re:Interesting fact...

[ma++i+ude]

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.

Re:Interesting fact...

[evanbd]

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.

Re:

[MightyYar]

And both taste nasty... :)

Re:

[fbjon]

Not if you couple it with some minty flavour, but you're right, xylitol isn't exactly for cooking...

Re:

[jd]

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 types of birch tree. I can't see how they'd produce identical chewing gum and I seriously doubt that every single variety would even be safe.

Re:

[ma++i+ude]

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 more sap. There is a third native birch variety, the dwarf birch (Betula nana), but it's tiny so it wouldn't be much good for collecting sap.

Re:Interesting fact...

[ma++i+ude]

In case anyone's interested, there seems to be a nice sap-collecting-howto, with pictures, here [cybis.se].

Re:

[CptPicard]

No, we're not. We can't imagine anything more boring than watching sap drip out of a birch.

Re:

[jd]

Silver birch sap wine is actually very nice, so this might be worth trying out. Thanks for the link.

Re:

[oliderid]

In my native village (Belgian ardennes), people still collects the birch sap. My mother always told me that it was good for my health and I had to drink a glass per day :-) (it is quite tasty).

I've heard that this habit exists also in baltic countries and I guess a lot of other countries as well (?)

Re:

[ookabooka]

And the 5th? Dead from a gum infection. . .natural selection was much harsher back then.

Re:

[budgenator]

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.

It was no gum ...

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

...It is the fossilized apple that Eve bit into in the Garden of Eden.

Re:

[Opportunist]

Shhh... the creationists are listening.

Re:

[Fire Dragon]

Eden is in Finland? Who knew!

Most of the locals. Eden is a spa in Nokia.

And besides, wouldn't you rather say that Linux came from land of paradise than from hell.

Student finds 5000-yr-old chewing gum

[arsheive]

...and it still had flavor. Suck on that one Stride! [stridegum.com]

everyone wants to know:

[circletimessquare]

did it lose its flavor yet?

The bubble gum company went extinct

[Lucas123]

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.

Collector's note

[Rob T Firefly]

Due to this gum's extreme age, the baseball cards sold with it were all rookies.

Interesting picture caption

[Rebelgecko]

One of the pictures is captioned

stone age "chewing cum"

Cue the jokes!

Just shows

[EmbeddedJanitor]

Everyone was just looking at the cute chick and not RTFcaptions.

Tree Gum

[Stanistani]

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?

[katarn]

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?

Re:

[Austerity Empowers]

1) There's nothing new about girls in social sciences

2) Social isn't really science

Re:

[TheThiefMaster]

Everyone's too scared.

Truly Amazing

[neiko]

The truly amazing thing was that after tests, the gum still retained it's flavor. "Fabulous."

figured...

[ryanw]

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 that would stick to their teeth. Proteins and things can stick to your teeth and cause quite a problem, but not as bad as a bag of skittles and coke can do in a day or two without cleaning the crap off your teeth.

Re:

[east coast]

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 probably have little use for a dentist too.

Re:

[MightyYar]

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" that you read about is a bit misleading. Life expectancy got dragged down by very high childhood death rates. Once you made it past childhood, you had a reasonable expectation to live into your 50s or so.

So then I guess the question again is, how did anyo

Re:

[LiENUS]

The Mayan's (IIRC Might be a different civilization) life expectancy took a major dive with the invention of maize. If you look at the skulls of Mayans around that period you'll find lots of cavities and the like. The theory is that people before this time kept their teeth because they ate things like meat or whole vegetables, things which tended to be a lot tougher and didn't get into crevices in your teeth. With the invention of processed foods like maize people did begin to get cavities and loose their t

Re:figured...

[BECoole]

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]

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Dental Carries didn't become common until man started farming cereal grains^H^H^H^H^H eating well enough to live past 30.

Fixed that for you [wikipedia.org].

Re:

[pkphilip]

Thanks for posting this very interesting link. Very informative.

From what I read, the so-called primitive tribes had a diet which differs from our current diet greatly; and yet their robustness and health indicates that they may infact have been smarter than us.

Yes, actually. The cat does "got my tongue."

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

"It is generally believed that neolithic people found that by chewing this stuff if they had gum infections it helped to treat the condition.

The article continues:

"Scientists also found the tar blob contained traces of ethanol and THC, though they as yet don't know what effect this may have had on the ancient chewing populations."

I hope she found enough for everyone!

[nightsweat]

Harumph.

l337 archeology sk1LLz

[upside]

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 that were produced in the Kierikki area in the Neolithic Period.

What? You can't be any more exact? I want to know the shape, weight and colour of the seal skins, and who bought them.

Otherwise a nice story. I have to go back and re-read the second paragraph

Flintsone Vision

[lbmouse]

Just got this vision of Fred Flintstone chewing on some Wrigley's DoubleRock gum.

Package was found nearby

[fishthegeek]

The article doesn't mention the package that was found nearby. It was a wooden box carved with

Grunt Growl Roar
Snort Grumble Grunt!

eBay?

[Innova]

I wonder what the going price would be for it on eBay [bbc.co.uk]?

Old News

[Renaissance 2K]

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.

Chew Gum

[lucabrasi999]

I came here to chew gum and kick ass. And, I am all out of gu....err...wait...what's this?

Obligatory...

[dokebi]

I bet it's a marketing ploy by Wrigley's for a new line of chewing gums.

Reading Playboy for articles

[iamacat]

It is generally believed that neolithic people found that by chewing this stuff if they had gum infections it helped to treat the condition.

Yeah right, and caveman also started drinking wine because it's good for the heart. Russians always pick off birch tar and chew it because it tastes good and gives you something to do. I never heard anything about gum health.

Re:

[budgenator]

Yeah right, and caveman also started drinking wine it's not that far fetched, I saw a documentary where a troop of wild monkeys got shit-faced drunk eating fermented fruit, it was absolutely hilarious.

The real question

[Aqua_boy17]

...is could cave men actually walk and chew gum at the same time?

Re:The real question (slight modif.)

[Tablizer]

...is could cave men actually walk upright and chew gum at the same time?
         

just back from Finland

[faceword]

Tar is still chewed regularly in Finland 5,000 years later. I just visited a friend who lives outside of Helsinki. He uses "tar" smelling shampoo and drinks tar flavored liquor. I had a few of the tar candies -- personally, I think the stuff has a disgusting flavor/smell -- a horrific combination of charcoal and black licorice.

Re:

[CptPicard]

It's not tar, it's probably "salmiakki" [wikipedia.org].

5000 BC, not 5000 years old

[Annymouse Cowherd]

It's 7000 years old.

That's some prior art!

[HTH NE1]

Too bad the patents on chewing gum have expired by now.

Re:

[MyLongNickName]

I got my first post stolen... by someone replying to the wrong story. Damn my luck!

Re:

[Tablizer]

I got my first post stolen... by someone replying to the wrong story. Damn my luck!

They can't chew gum and post at the same time :-)
     

Re:

[MyLongNickName]

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:

[i.r.id10t]

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

Re:

[Svippy]

And Gimel is with one m.

At least that's what an Israeli told me.

Re:

[reset_button]

The sound is closer to Gimmel than Gimel (it's closer to the 'i' in 'is', then the 'i' in 'island'). Anyway, as far as I know there is no official way of spelling Hebrew using English letters. An Israeli would know what you meant with either spelling.

Re:

[Fatal67]

That would not be correct, no matter how you spell it.

ABC gum is actually short for "Already been chewed". Not the alphabet.

Now, I have no idea what the words for that would be in Hebrew, but if they start with A B G, I stand corrected.

Re:

[XxtraLarGe]

Actually, this would have been Aleph Beth Gimmel Gum.

Actually, this would have been Alpha Beta Gamma gum.

I'm Greek you insensitive clod! (well, not really...)

Re:

[budgenator]

well you know the creationists can't use a 5000 year old piece of gum because the earth is only 4350 years old!