Scientists discover ancient gum and recover human DNA:

[Laffy Kat]

I wonder if they found it on her bedpost?

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/did-it-keep-its-flavor-stone-age-chewing-gum-yields-human-dna/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Stone Age chewing gum holds clues to the life of a young girl who lived 5,700 years ago

By Ashley Strickland, CNN
Updated 12:09 PM ET, Tue December 17, 2019



(CNN)Lola, a young girl who lived in Denmark 5,700 years ago, had blue eyes, dark skin and dark hair. Her last meal included hazelnuts and mallard duck but no milk -- she couldn't stomach dairy.

And the reason we know any of this is because she chewed on birch pitch, a material that functioned a bit like an ancient chewing gum.

A study of that birch pitch has uncovered the girl's entire genome and oral microbiome, marking the first time human genetic material has successfully been extracted from something besides human bones. The study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

Birch pitch was what Palaeolithic people used as glue as many as 760,000 years ago. It was derived by heating the bark of birch trees, and somewhere along the way they realized they could chew it -- as indicated by teeth marks found on ancient remnants of the pitch.

More:
https://us.cnn.com/2019/12/17/world/ancient-chewing-gum-genome-scn/index.html