Chewing gum may seem like a modern habit but that's apparently not quite the case. Scientists have recovered DNA that is nearly 10,000 years old from gum that was chewed by people in Scandinavia during the Mesolithic — or Stone Age — period.
This gum was used as glue to make tools — the chewing is believed to have helped make it more pliable and sticky. They may not have chewed it for pleasure, but recreational chewing of resin and gum has been known of since ancient times. The gum itself was found at Huseby Klev, a Mesolithic site in western Sweden.