Aug. 20, 2007 A Stone Age piece of chewing gum, one of the
oldest ever to be discovered, has been found by a Scottish
archaeology student in Finland.
Still bearing tooth impressions, the 5,000-year-old glob was made
from birch bark tar and looked "just like a dirty piece of modern
chewing gum," student Sarah Pickin, 23, told the daily
Scotsman.
"I was also worried it could have been a bit of fossilized poo,"
Pickin added.
Pickin made the discovery while on a six-week volunteer program at
the Kierikki Center, an archaeological and exhibition site on the
west coast of Finland.
Containing carbolic acid, an antiseptic compound, the unflavored
birch bark would have proved useful in treating mouth
infections.
"By chewing this stuff, Neolithic people suffering from gum and
throat infections might have found some relief," Trevor Brown,
Pickin's tutor at the University of Derby, told Discovery
News.
Also used as a glue for affixing arrowheads to shafts, the
prehistoric chewing gum was made by simply heating birch
bark.
