CELEBRITY CRIMES
CRIME ARCHIVES
TRUE CRIME
LATEST NEWS
About Us Contact Us Privacy Policy Terms of Use Editors Notes Cookie Policy
© Copyright 2024 Empire Media Group, Inc. Front Page Detectives is a registered trademark. All Rights Reserved. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.
WWW.FRONTPAGEDETECTIVES.COM / LATEST NEWS

Swedish Researchers Extract Ancient Scandinavians' DNA From a 10,000-Year-Old 'Chewing Gum'

The earliest ever human DNA from Scandinavia is set to help humans know about the elusive people who first settled in the area.
PUBLISHED 6 DAYS AGO
One of the analyzed chewing gums from birch bark. (Cover Image Source: Stockholm University | Natalija Kashuba)
One of the analyzed chewing gums from birch bark. (Cover Image Source: Stockholm University | Natalija Kashuba)

Advanced technology has finally allowed experts to analyze DNA from a chewed-up birch bark in Sweden, uncovered in the early 1990s. At that time, the equipment was incapable of examining DNA from such objects, according to All That's Interesting. However, the bark always remained in the heads of scientists, as it could contain ancient human DNA from Scandinavia, that are very hard to come by. Researchers believe it could hold DNA, as past studies revealed that ancient humans in Scandinavia used bark as a chewing item. After years when the technology was adequate, a team of experts extracted and analyzed DNA from the bits of bark and published their results in the journal Communications Biology

Birch bark lodge, Whitefish Island National Historic Site of Canada, Batchewana First Nation of Ojibways (Representative Image Source: Wikimedia Commons | Photo by 	Fungus Guy)
Birch bark lodge, Whitefish Island National Historic Site of Canada, Batchewana First Nation of Ojibways (Representative Image Source: Wikimedia Commons | Photo by Fungus Guy)

Significance of Birch Bark

Preliminary examinations on the birch bark found from Huseby Klev on the west coast revealed that the object was around 10,000 years old. The potential human DNA on the bark was crucial for experts, as human bones from the Stone Age are scarce in the area. Even the bones that have been located in the area do not contain well-preserved human DNA. Hence, most of the assertions about ancient humans from Scandinavia could not be validated by DNA investigation. "Much of our history is visible in the DNA we carry with us, so we try to look for DNA wherever we believe we can find it," Anders Götherström, who works in the Archaeological Research Laboratory at Stockholm University, said, per a press release of the university. The Birch Bark could now finally supply this legacy.

The studied material and its origin (Image Source: Communications Biology)
The studied material and its origin (Image Source: Communications Biology)

Results of the Analysis

Researchers found human DNA in the bark and believe it belongs to the first set of humans who settled in Scandinavia over 10,000 years ago, according to Phys. It is the oldest human DNA ever sequenced from Sweden. The study claimed that the human DNA belonged to two females and one male. Further investigation showed that these individuals had genetic similarities with other ancient hunter-gatherer groups in Sweden and Mesolithic people from Ice Age Europe.

The tools found at the site appeared to be from people of the East European Plain in modern-day Russia. These findings align with the claims by other studies that Scandinavia experienced genetic and cultural influx from the East European Plain (modern-day Russia) and Ice Age Europe. Emrah Kirdök at Stockholm University, who conducted the computational analyses of the DNA, further added that the three individuals were genetically closer to western hunter-gatherer populations than the eastern hunter-gatherer populations.

Scope of the Discovery

Per Persson at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo believes that further analysis on the extracted DNA could reveal more details about the ancient human population in Sweden. The DNA could provide a clue about the people's origins as well as how or why they moved from one place to another. It could also shed light on the social relationships of individuals back then, the food they ate, and the diseases they suffered from. Natalija Kashuba of the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo appreciated the care the archaeologists put in while examining the fragile material, as the organization was initially hesitant to let such a precious object undergo investigation.

POPULAR ON Front Page Detectives
MORE ON Front Page Detectives