Ancient chewed gum reveals Stone Age people suffered from gum disease
Researchers analyzing 10,000-year-old pitch from Sweden found evidence of severe oral infections in Mesolithic populations. The discovery demonstrates how preserved biological artifacts can reveal disease patterns in prehistory, opening new avenues for understanding human health evolution and validating ancient DNA analysis methods for commercial applications.
Originaltitel: Metagenomic analysis of Mesolithic chewed pitch reveals poor oral health among stone age individuals
<p>Prehistoric chewed pitch has proven to be a useful source of ancient DNA, both from humans and their microbiomes. Here we present the metagenomic analysis of three pieces of chewed pitch from Huseby Klev, Sweden, that were dated to 9,890-9,540 before present. The metagenomic profile exposes a Mesolithic oral microbiome that includes opportunistic oral pathogens. We compared the data with healthy and dysbiotic microbiome datasets and we identified increased abundance of periodontitis-associated microbes. In addition, trained machine learning models predicted dysbiosis with 70-80% probability. Moreover, we identified DNA sequences from eukaryotic species such as red fox, hazelnut, red deer and apple. Our results indicate a case of poor oral health during the Scandinavian Mesolithic, and show that pitch pieces have the potential to provide information on material use, diet and oral health.</p>