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August 20, 2007: Oldest gum
It's Neatorama Collaboration Monday!
From the Guardian via Spluch comes this item: a 5,000 year old piece of chewing gum, found by a British archeology student.
The gum is made from birch bark tar, and the reason they think it's gum is that it has a big ol' human tooth print in it. Kinda weak, but that's how archaeologists think isn't it?
Also, it was stuck to the bottom of a prehistoric theater seat.
Future archaeologists will determine that pen caps are the gum of the year 2000, designed to be colorful and long-lasting and as flavorful as regular gum after use.
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Trevor Brown, her tutor at the University of Derby, said: "Birch bark tar contains phenols, which are antiseptic compounds. It is generally believed that Neolithic people found that by chewing this stuff if they had gum infections it helped to treat the condition." Sini Annala, from the Kierikki Centre, said: "The actual material is some kind of tar, that was made by heating birch bark. After the tar was made ... it was boiled, and when it cooled, it became solid. "When it was heated again, it became softer, and it was used as some kind of chewing gum." |
Be sure to visit Neatorama for more neato items all the time!
Shawnee123 Monday Aug 20 02:26 PM
Violet Beauregard is going to be so pissed.
Spexxvet Monday Aug 20 02:27 PM
Does your chewing gum lose its flavor over 5,000 years?
xoxoxoBruce Monday Aug 20 03:06 PM
Life's a birch.
dar512 Monday Aug 20 03:40 PM
I bet this was the early equivalent for duct tape too.
Spexxvet Monday Aug 20 05:03 PM
Ya know.... it could be a boogey.
Sheldonrs Monday Aug 20 05:17 PM
Coincided with the discovery of the oldest known school desk.
Elspode Monday Aug 20 10:13 PM
I heard an interview with the student who found this on the way home from work tonight. The interviewer had already thought of most of these jokes.
JuancoRocks Monday Aug 20 10:59 PM
Oldest gum
Holey molar!
justush Tuesday Aug 21 01:26 AM
Its actually a human brain. You couldn't eat it, just chew because people were thick blokes back then.
lumberjim Tuesday Aug 21 01:54 AM
looks like an old cat turd.
this may be the ugliest picture of the day i remember seeing. Not that there haven't been uglier things....just that this bit of ....matter...is about as ..unpicturesque as it gets. I mean.....even really exceptionally ugly things that are pictures of the day because of their ugliness have a certain allure based in that selfsame nastiness. beautifully ugly....like those dogs. but this? it's a little piece of shit lying on some gravel.
DO OVER!
JuancoRocks Tuesday Aug 21 03:32 AM
lumberjim
Looks like an old cat turd. ^^^^:p :p 
Aliantha Tuesday Aug 21 04:31 AM
Wasn't birch bark used as a pain killer at some time during human history? Is it possible someone had a tooth ache and was chewing on it for relief?
spudcon Tuesday Aug 21 07:02 AM
Actually, it was always a rock. The tooth mark was made by a member the tribe of homo nodentus, or the toothless ones, who died out from their custom of eating rocks.
Kumbulu Tuesday Aug 21 10:14 AM
If I accidentally swallow this, will it join the big pile of gum in my stomach and block up my stomach and make me dead? 
SteveDallas Tuesday Aug 21 10:22 AM
There's only one way to find out . . . .
Shawnee123 Tuesday Aug 21 11:49 AM
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Originally Posted by Kumbulu
If I accidentally swallow this, will it join the big pile of gum in my stomach and block up my stomach and make me dead?
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manephelien Tuesday Aug 21 04:58 PM
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Originally Posted by Aliantha
Wasn't birch bark used as a pain killer at some time during human history? Is it possible someone had a tooth ache and was chewing on it for relief?
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My grandmother told me that as a kid she and her friends used to chew on pine resin. She was born in 1913 and there was little candy, never mind chewing gum available.
Xylitol is birch sugar, refined from birch sap. It is used as a sweetener in sugarfree gum, and has the property of combating caries rather than causing it.
xoxoxoBruce Tuesday Aug 21 06:40 PM
I've chewed pine resin. Ya gotta get it good and dirty before it stops sticking to your teeth.
Elspode Tuesday Aug 21 11:44 PM
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Originally Posted by Aliantha
Wasn't birch bark used as a pain killer at some time during human history? Is it possible someone had a tooth ache and was chewing on it for relief?
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lumberjim Wednesday Aug 22 12:03 AM
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Originally Posted by JuancoRocks
lumberjim
Looks like an old cat turd. ^^^^:p :p |
Cloud Wednesday Aug 22 12:04 AM
and what will archeologists of the future think of the Gum Wall in Pike's Place Market in Seattle, I wonder?
JuancoRocks Wednesday Aug 22 01:35 AM
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Originally Posted by lumberjim
are you laughing because it looks like it says" lumberjim looks like an old cat turd"? or because you thought it was funny?
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Looking back at it.....Either one works.....They both made me laugh.......As this has.....:p
Karenv Thursday Aug 23 02:28 PM
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Originally Posted by Aliantha
Wasn't birch bark used as a pain killer at some time during human history? Is it possible someone had a tooth ache and was chewing on it for relief?
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No reason to think that primitive people were any less intelligent than us. We adapt to a different database, but few of us could survive living off of the land, hunting, modifying natural substances for food, medicines and tools. Cooking it to a tar isn't farfetched- ever see how taro is processed by the Amazonians. Taro, their staple food, is poisonous unless processed.
In fact since wild animals are invariably more intelligent than their domesticated cousins, it could be that we are less intelligent. (Thank heavens we can cover it up by googling.)
beauregaardhooligan Saturday Sep 1 02:17 PM
Poi, which is made from taro, is a staple of Hawaiian food.
Taro isn't technically poisonous but has lots of indigestible fiber which could make you really sick and possibly die.
There are also taro chips available at health food stores that are made just like potato chips. I've had them, and they are really good.
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