Discover the world's oldest chewing gum

Sarah Pickin, 23, a Scottish archaeologist, found a piece of 5,000-year-old chewing gum on an experimental trip on the Finnish coast - something she initially thought is a . fossil feces.

The plastic bark of the bark bark - still clearly a mark of bad chewing teeth - was diagnosed by experts from 3,000 years ago.

(Photo: Kierikki.fi ) More specifically, Pickin's specimen is likely to emerge from the Neolithic period (4000-2500 BC), when humans began to use a full birch bark and not taste like a disinfectant to prevent tooth decay, or as a glue to fix furniture, from broken bottles to arrows, spears .

'I also know that archaeologists have found ancient gum residues in Europe, so when I saw the specimen in the ground, it was the first possibility I thought of' - a career student. Serving part-time at the bar confided. "However, it looks dirty and soft as animal manure so I turn to ask friends. The sample is being sent for analysis, then it will be displayed."

Professor Trevor Brown - Heritage conservation expert and instructor at Pickin during a 6-week experiment at the Stone Age Center in Derby - said: ' In the birch bark contains phenol. - which is a disinfection contract. The piece of 'candy residue' that Pickin found was probably made by baking the bark for melting, then boiling, cooling it to be sure of that. "

When you want to chew like candy, people warm it up to soften and then ' enjoy '.

Earlier, people still thought of chewing gum as a habit of modern times invented by American William Wrigley Jr in 1893 and introduced to Europe from the last century.

In fact, chewing gum has a much older origin than that, at least appearing 9,000 years ago. According to archaeologists, plastic pieces were popular throughout northern Europe from the middle of the Stone Age (around 10,000-6,500 BC).

Sarah Pickin at excavation site in southwestern Finland (Photo: DT)

Hai Minh