Prehistoric chewing gum reveals diet and oral health of Stone Age teenagers | Smart News

Scientists are learning about the oral health and diet of Stone Age people by analyzing ancient chewing gum. Researchers examined DNA in chewed plant resin excavated in Sweden and painted a picture of prehistoric life based on what people were putting in their mouths.

The research team found DNA from a variety of animals, fruits, nuts, and even microorganisms associated with gum infections, they said in a paper published last week in the same journal. scientific report.

“We are capturing a Stone Age moment in great detail,” said Emra Kurdok, an ancient DNA researcher at Turkey's Mersin University and lead author of the study. atlas obscuraI'm Olivia Young.

Ancient chewing gum probably wasn't meant for blowing bubbles. Hunter-gatherers likely chewed this resin for more practical reasons. “It was meant to be used as a glue” to make tools and weapons, study co-author Anders Gaitherström, an ancient DNA researcher at Stockholm University, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“This is the most likely hypothesis. They could have been bitten simply because they liked it or because they thought it had some medicinal value,” he adds in the publication.

Today, that chewing gum can reveal insights about Stone Age people. In 2019, scientists who studied human DNA in chewing gum taken from the same Swedish archaeological site as a recent study proposed that the resin could preserve details about the ecology and environment of prehistoric humans. did. In the same year, another paper chewed 5,700-year-old birch tar from Denmark and reconstructed the genomes of the person who chewed it, the microorganisms in their mouths, and the genomes of the food they ate.

In the new study, researchers examined three pieces of chewed resin dating back 9,540 to 9,890 years. The work was made from birch bark resin, the study authors wrote. conversation. They came from an archaeological site called Huseby Kleb north of Gothenburg, Sweden, where archaeologists unearthed the flint artifacts and 115 pieces of chewed resin in the early 1990s.

Some of the newly examined fragments have tooth marks preserved, suggesting they were chewed by three children between the ages of 5 and 11 and three teenagers, according to the study. It is said that they are doing so.

To learn about the oral health of these people, researchers compared the microorganisms in the resin to the latest datasets of healthy and unhealthy oral microbiomes. One of the teens showed signs of a severe gum infection called periodontitis.

People back then used their teeth as tools, which may have increased their risk of acquiring the microorganisms that cause periodontitis, the study authors wrote. But chewing gum may have helped with this.

“If the pitch removed plaque and debris from the tooth surface, there may have been some benefit,” said Marin Pilloud, an anthropologist specializing in dental anthropology at the University of Nevada, Reno. Although he was not involved in the results of this study, he says: atlas obscura.

Researchers also found DNA from a number of animals, including red deer, wolves, red foxes, arctic foxes, mallard ducks, European robins, and European turtledoves. Researchers also detected a salmonid fish they suggested was a brown trout. However, due to the low quality of the genome, we cannot say for sure. The research team found evidence of fruits and nuts such as hazelnuts, apples, and crabapples.

The identification of these sites within the Gam is supported by other archaeological studies that have found these types of sites in the area.

Gum chewers did not necessarily eat the meat of all these animals. They may have chewed fox tendons and fur to make textiles, the study authors wrote in their paper. conversation.

According to the research team, a clearer picture of Stone Age people was only possible by examining chewing gum.

“If you take human bones, you get human DNA. If you can prepare their teeth, you get a little bit more. But here, we get DNA from what they were chewing before. ,” Goetelström told AFP. “You can't get it any other way.”