Popular Science - Somewhere between 9,500 and 9,900 years ago, three Scandinavian teenagers were hanging out, chewing gum after a meal. Specifically, they were chewing pitch or tar made from the bark of birch trees. Many millennia removed, archaeologists analyzed the spit out wads and discovered what the teens had recently eaten (red fox, hazelnut, deer, and apple), as well as the state of their oral health (poor). The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports in 2024. It’s among the earliest known examples of chewing gum in the archaeological record, but it’s far from the only one.
Humans have been gnawing on rubbery bits of indigestible gunk for a long, long time. Gum chewing independently arose across different cultures and regions at different times, says Jennifer Mathews, an anthropologist at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. In Mexico, for instance, Mayans and later Aztecs chewed chicle, a substance derived from the milky latex of the tropical sapodilla tree. Chicle ultimately led to the creation and commodification of the modern chewing gum we know today, as described in Mathews’ 2009 book, Chicle: The Chewing Gum of the Americas, From the Ancient Maya to William Wrigley.
... In the absence of toothpaste and dentists, people found their own ways to keep their mouths feeling as hygienic as possible. Chewing gum filled in some of those gaps and its primary purpose across cultures was to clean the teeth, freshen the breath, and boost oral health, Mathews explains. Mastic and chicle alike are commonly described as having pleasant, sweet, and piney or woodsy flavors– probably a preferable smell and taste to whatever bits of food might linger between the teeth after meals. Today, sugar free gum can offer some smile benefits, according to the American Dental Association (though overdo it and you could end up with a jaw disorder).
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