5,000 Year Old Chewing Gum Unearthed :: Oblate Spheroid

Yes, that’s right, 5K year old chewing gum and not a chair or counter underside in sight.

It turns out that Neolithic people (c. 4000-5000 BC) found that by chewing this stuff, cob of Birch tree bark, when they had gum infections … it helped to treat the condition. This find is particularly significant because of well-defined tooth imprints found on the gum. Time for a little very, very cold case CSI, I’d say.

We have only one question here at Oblate Spheroid; Did these people have packs of cigarettes rolled up in the sleeves of their Tee Shirts?

This from the Kierikki Stone Age Centre, Finland

Friday 13th of July was the lucky day at Kierikki Excavation

Notes from the Kierikki Stone Age Centre

Beside the main building of Kierikki Centre on a site called "Kierikkikangas" there has been an excavation from June 25th to 3rd August . There have been five British students working who came via Leonardo da Vinci -exchange program of European Union. Besides them also the general public can take part in this exciting centred on the Neolithic period, c. 4000-5000 BC. The results of the dig have been excellent throughout this year.

Miss Sarah Pickin (pictured) from Derby has been the favourite of fortune. She has found a piece of "Neolithic chewing gum", chewed cob of birch-bark, part of an amber ring and found on Thursday July 12th with help of two diggers from Oulu, Ms. Rumana Hossein and Ms. Maisoun Alsanat.

Originally the diameter of it was four centimetres but probably was already broken in the Stone Age. After that someone made a hole in the ring so that it could still be used as jewellery. It was transported from the Baltic coast c. 5500-6000 years ago as payment for seal skins that were produced in the Kierikki area in the Neolithic Period.

Reference At Source>>

(ht: SlashDot)

Further investigation reveals that the current population in Finland have the the best dental hygiene in the world. Finland leads the world in overall dental health as they use xylitol as a healthy alternative to sugar.

Xylitol is a natural sugar that comes mainly from corn cobs, corn stalks, … and birch trees!

File this under – “Old Habits Die Hard”