During excavations at Syltholm, in southern Denmark, archaeologists found the chewing gum consisting of birch resin. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have been able to pick up a complete human DNA from the small clump.
"It is absolutely incredible that we have succeeded in obtaining a complete human DNA from something other than bone," says Hannes Schröder, who led the research work, "in a press release from the university.
The girl probably had a dark complexion and blue eyes. She was more like the people who lived on the mainland in Europe and were hunter-gatherers than those who lived in central Scandinavia at that time.
There was also DNA in the chewing gum that could be derived from a virus known to cause, among other things, glandular fever. The researchers believe that the discovery will help them in first how human diseases develop.
- This can make it easier for us to understand how diseases have developed and spread over time, and how they will behave in the future, says Hannes Schröder.