8 Modern Inventions That Are Actually Super Ancient

5. Neolithic Chewing Gum

Chewing gum is seen by many as a plague on modern society, littering out pavements, sticking to bus seats and snapping in the mouths of feckless youths.

It is likely, however, that gum has been stuck to the underside of desks for a good 5,000 years, as the oldest piece of chewing gum was discovered by a 23-year-old archaeology student at a Neolithic site in Finland. It still had human tooth prints in it.

The gum was made from birch bark tar and contained antiseptic compounds known as phenols, so it's possible that it was even being used to clean the teeth, ward off gum disease and keep that hunter gatherer's mouth fresh and kissable.

It looks as though humans have always had an oral fixation, as many different cultures have invented their own versions of chewing gum, with the Greeks chowing down on resin of the mastic tree and Native Americans chewing the chewed resin from spruce trees.