Lola had clear eyes, dark skin and hair. She ate duck with nuts, got a gum infection, and lived near Rødbyhavn, west of the Danish island of Lolandia. When I say “I lived” I mean it conscientiously: she lived there about 6,000 years ago. That’s not the most surprising thing: The most surprising thing is that we know all this from a chewing gum.

6,000 years old gum. Not everything. The girl, whose name we do not know, was named Lola in honor of the island where the researchers were found. Everything else is “extracted” from a birch pitch. This substance, which is produced during the burning of birch bark, has been used in the making of tools and weapons since the Paleolithic period due to its sticky property.

However, in recent years several research groups in Europe have come across bits of tar with teeth marks. The question in the minds of archaeologists was whether they chewed the “glue” to soften it or used it as a kind of gum (taking advantage of the fact that this substance also has antiseptic and antibacterial properties).

When ancient DNA stopped being science fiction Until relatively recently, these were the kind of questions that were never taken seriously: only luck could solve them (and not for sure), so theorizing about them was an interesting pastime, not much else.

But when researchers at the University of Copenhagen discovered the image stone in the Syltholm region, they had what would have looked like science fiction a decade ago: highly advanced techniques for reading and sequencing ancient DNA; techniques that allow the extraction of a disproportionately large amount of information. First of all, if we take into account that we are talking about tar gum.

What gum hides (prehistoric). By analyzing the DNA they found in the gum and diving into the mutations we already knew well, they discovered that she had many of the girl’s physical characteristics (dark hair, brown skin, light eyes); They also learned that he is lactose intolerant, carries the Epstein-Barr virus, and carries two X chromosomes.

But that’s not all. Mainly because there is so much more material in that gum. Researchers found bacteria and viruses that should have been in Lola’s mouth. They found normal stuff, but also evidence pointing to periodontitis (something that supports the idea that gum could be used as medicine, by the way). Finally, and surprisingly to archaeologists, the gum also contained material that showed the girl eating ducks and nuts before chewing.

New doors of the past. The use of ‘ancient DNA’ has been highly controversial. Not because it provides us (which it does) with invaluable information, but because it is often not put into context with other archaeological evidence and produces sensational narratives. But over the years it has become increasingly clear that these problems have disappeared and our view of the past has become more organic, deeper and more meaningful. Who would tell us that the keys to humanity’s distant history will be in the future.