What Chewed-Up Gum Reveals About Life in the Stone Age [DNA]

www.theatlantic.com ^ | Dec 14, 2018 | Sarah Zhang

[Red Badger]

Chewed tar is an unexpectedly great source of ancient DNA.

No one today quite understands how they did it, but people in the Stone Age could turn ribbons of birch bark into sticky, black tar. They used this tar to make tools, fixing arrowheads onto arrows and blades onto axes. And they chewed it, as evidenced by teeth marks in some lumps.

These unassuming lumps of chewed birch-bark tar turn out to be an extraordinary source of ancient DNA. This month, two separate research groups posted preprints describing DNA from the tar in Stone Age Scandinavia. The two papers have not yet been peer reviewed, but they are already generating excitement about what they herald.

“It’s really amazing,” says Pontus Skoglund, an ancient-DNA researcher at Francis Crick Institute who was not involved with either study. Ancient DNA from human bones and teeth have recently revolutionized the study of the past, but many cultures over time did not bury their dead and left no remains to analyze. Chewing gum could fill in some of the gaps. It could also reveal a wealth of additional information, such as who helped make the Stone Age tools, what they ate, and what bacteria lived in their teeth.

The first new paper describes human DNA from three 10,000-year-old pieces of birch-bark tar, all found at a site called Huseby Klev in western Sweden. Having never extracted DNA from tar before, the team tried a protocol originally designed to extract DNA from feces—and it worked. Each piece of tar appears to have been chewed by just one person. In total, the tar pieces captured the DNA of two females and one male.

[Red Badger]

A piece of chewed birch-bark tarNatalija Kashuba

[Doogle]

[yarddog]

When I was a kid, my Brother showed me that you could chew pine resin. It tasted OK. Many years later I tried it again and it just turned to powder.

I guess you have to get it just right.

[Red Badger]

It helps if you remove the wood first...............

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

"To modern eyes, she would have looked unusual. She had dark skin, dark hair, and blue eyes, all of which were characteristic of Europe’s hunter-gatherers then."

[yarddog]

Many years ago, I was talking to a very old Black Man who used to work collecting turpentine in South Georgia. He mentioned that water never tasted as good as it did from one of the pots used to collect the turpentine.

He said it gave it a very pleasant flavor and I am sure he was right.

[sparklite2]

She was attractive, but her
New Jersey accent was off-putting.

[freedumb2003]

So they found stone age school desks?

[SaveFerris]

If only there had been Mentos!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zivWsrKQSDU

[fieldmarshaldj]

*ping*

[freedumb2003]

"To modern eyes, she would have looked unusual. She had dark skin, dark hair, and blue eyes, all of which were characteristic of Europe’s hunter-gatherers then."

I could work with that:

[Red Badger]

Yes and it killed any bacteria that would have been in it. Old folks in The South used to take a nip of Turpentine for colds and sore throats. It was even sold in small bottles in grocery stores and pharmacies, under the Swan label..........

[Slyfox]

A piece of chewed birch-bark

Which is also where we get aspirin. Smart fellas.

[a fool in paradise]

No one today quite understands how they did it, but people in the Stone Age could turn ribbons of birch bark into sticky, black tar. They used this tar to make tools, fixing arrowheads onto arrows and blades onto axes. And they chewed it, as evidenced by teeth marks in some lumps.

It was the duct tape of its day.

[Red Badger]

LOL!.................

[Red Badger]

Willow:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirin

[Slyfox]

Willow, Apen and Birch:

https://ndnr.com/pain-medicine/salicylates-in-salix-populus-and-betula/

[Little Bill]

I have one of the oldest Y DNA groups in Europe I. I has been around 35,000 yago. WE all are blue eyed and with a pasty complexion.

[Little Bill]

I have one of the oldest Y DNA groups in Europe I. I has been around 35,000 yago. WE all are blue eyed and with a pasty complexion.

[PapaBear3625]

"To modern eyes, she would have looked unusual. She had dark skin, dark hair, and blue eyes, all of which were characteristic of Europe’s hunter-gatherers then."

Until they interbred with Neanderthals.