The Stone Age sample provided enough information to determine the nature of the source, what it last ate and the germs in its mouth. He also told them that she may have had dark hair, dark skin and blue eyes.
Le HT Correspondent | Agence France-Presse, Paris
UPDATE ON DEC 18, 2019 01:32 PM IST
Danish scientists have uncovered a complete human DNA sample from a piece of birch over 5,000 years old, used as a type of chewing gum, a study has revealed.
The Stone Age sample provided enough information to determine the nature of the source, what it last ate and the germs in its mouth. He also told them that she may have had dark hair, dark skin and blue eyes.
And genetically, it had a closer relationship with hunter-gatherers from mainland Europe than with those living in central Scandinavia at the time, they concluded.
“This is the first time that an ancient human genome has been extracted from anything but human bones,” Hannes Schroeder of the University of Copenhagen told AFP.
Schroeder is the co-author of the study, which was published in the Nature Communications review.
They found the sample during an archaeological dig at Syltholm, in southern Denmark, said Tehis Jensen, one of the other authors.
“Syltholm is absolutely special,” he said.
“Almost everything is sealed in mud, which means that the preservation of organic waste is absolutely amazing. ”
The researchers also found traces of plant and animal DNA – hazelnuts and ducks – confirming what archaeologists know about the people who lived there at the time.
But they weren’t sure why their subject chose to chew the bark: whether it should turn into a kind of glue, to clean her teeth, to stop hunger – or just like chewing gum.
(This story was published from a wire group group without text editing)
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