by ancient chewing gum
During this morning’s amble through my blog list, imagine my surprise reading this at Mirabilis:
A 5,000-year-old piece of chewing gum has been discovered by an archaeology student from the University of Derby. Sarah Pickin, 23, found the lump of birch bark tar while on a dig in western FINLAND. (emphasis mine)
The story comes from BBC News, which offered more interesting related links, such as to the University of Derby, UK, home of the dig’s volunteers.
Most intriguing for me was to find and learn about the Kierikki Stone Age Centre, the area of the dig. Located in northwest Finland, just north of the city of Oulu, it is about 200 km. south of the Arctic Circle. This discovery is also posted on the Centre’s website in English, and has some good photos of Sarah Pickin, this piece of “Neolithic chewing gum” (shown above), plus her other finds of a slate arrow and part of an amber ring.
Finland doesn’t often come up in international archaeological news, so this was cool for me. Who would think dirty old gum could be so interesting? Amazing proof that there were humans living so far north 5,000 years ago.
August 20, 2007 in Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, Neat stuff, Rock Art & Archaeology by Marja-Leena
5000 year-old Finnish chewing gum!! Too much! I feel a poem coming on…
Truly far out, Marja-Leena! A great story.
Was it stuck to the bottom of a Neolithic desk?
Imagine how long it lasts if you swallow it! Fascinating story…
TG – I want to see that poem!
Beth – Glad you enjoyed it!
Dave – maybe a stone desk, heh!
Patry – but I wonder what it tastes like? And feels like in the pit of your stomach?
and I bet they could walk and chew gum at the same time!
Oui, Mouse! We are all having fun with this story!
Damn, I was going to ask if it was stuck to a 5000 year old bedpost, and if it had lost its flavour yet, but Dave sort of pre-empted me…
Lucy, might that be a stone bedpost?
Heh. Yes, might thought also. Even 5000 years ago humans were leaving their gum stuck to things. Picturing a prehistoric school teacher taking a kid by his ear…
Leslie, yeah…
In a more serious vein though, did any of you notice the discussion about the dental/gum benefits of this prehistoric birch bark tar gum? It brings to mind xylitol, a sugar first developed by Finns from birch. It has does not cause cavities and has anti-inflammatory properties, even for ear and nose infections. I use it as a sugar substitute in baking, as it does not affect insulin levels. And xylitol gum is great, though hard to find here, just in some health food stores.
I hadn’t realised that xylitol was from birch. My Finnish partner read about this gum and thought it was a joke. The first thing I thought of was my dad – when I was in my teens, he had some tar for a boat he was renovating (we were going to live in it until it sank when launched but that’s another story) and he told me that as a child during the war and the years after, all the kids chewed tar instead of chewing gum, which was in short supply because of rationing. We thought he was winding us up but we tried it and it was fine. At that time I didn’t realise that tar came trees. Since then I’ve discovered a finnish spirit called Terva snapsi which is distilled from pine tar and captures perfectly the taste and aroma of an outdoor cooking fire or a wood burning sauna.
On a totally unrelated note but harking back to earlier discussion, were you aware of this book of essays about Tove Jansson and her work?
Dem, it does sound like a joke. Interesting story about your dad and his tar gum, and the Terva Schnapps is new to me. I don’t get to Finland often and should check out Alko’s selections. I love the smell of a wood-burning sauna and it’s so much better than an electric one, especially with a dip in the lake to cool off.
No, I did not know about that book – thanks for the tip! I even reread that post about Jansson and the great discussion we had!
You just reminded me of something i heard on the way to work and intended to blog: the finding that the chewing of yucca (used in a chewing gum sort of way) was common in Paleolithic man AND that usable DNA could be extracted from it to study their genetics.
http://urltea.com/1d1t
Thanks for the great link, Fred, and for visiting! This DNA resource is quite exciting.