A SCOTTISH archaeology student has discovered a 5,000-year-old piece of chewing gum while on a dig in Europe.

Sarah Pickin, 23, spotted the ancient piece of “confectionery” during a dig in north-west Finland, but had to check with colleagues whether her hunch was correct or if it was in fact a fossilised piece of animal dung.

The part-time barmaid was correct and the lump of birch-bark tar, complete with visible tooth marks, has now been sent for analysis where it is expected to be carbon dated at around 3000BC.

Chewing gum is often thought of as a modern habit invented by William Wrigley Jr and imported to Europe from America last century.

However, gum has a long history stretching back at least 9,000 years, with tar-like materials commonly chewed throughout much of northern Europe from at least the early Mesolithic period (10,000-6500BC).

Ms Pickin’s discovery is from the Neolithic period (4000-2500BC) when people used the unflavoured birch bark as an antiseptic to treat gum infections or as glue for repairing broken pots and fixing arrowheads to shafts.

She said: “I had heard of ancient chewing gum being found before on previous European digs so when I found it in the trench, it was the first thing that crossed my mind.

“However, it looks just like a dirty piece of modern chewing gum with no smell or taste and I was also worried it could have been a bit of fossilised poo, so I asked a few of the other students to make sure.

“Thankfully they agreed that it was birch-bark gum and it’s now away to be carbon dated and have the teeth marks analysed before it goes on display.”

Ms Pickin, originally from Stranraer, but now living in Derby, also found part of an amber ring and a slate arrowhead. She was one of five UK students on a six-week volunteer programme at Kierikki Stone Age Centre on the Finnish coast.

Her tutor at Derby, Professor Trevor Brown, a heritage and conservation expert, said: “Birch-bark tar contains phenols, which are antiseptic compounds.

“It is generally believed that Neolithic people suffering from gum infections found that chewing this stuff helped to treat the condition.

“The actual material is some kind of tar, which was made by heating the birch bark. After the tar was made, it was boiled, and when it cooled, it became solid. When it was heated again, it became softer, and only then was it used as a kind of chewing gum. Sarah’s discovery is particularly significant because well-defined tooth imprints were found on the gum.”

Examples of black lumps of tar with well-defined human tooth impressions have been found at several sites across northern Europe, notably in Germany and Scandinavia.

It is not known for certain whether the early form of the confectionery was used for medical reasons or purely enjoyment. These days, it is common knowledge that chewing gum between meals can help reduce the build-up of plaque, but how much was known of its dental capabilities in 3000BC is unclear.

A pattern that has emerged from studies of the tooth impressions is that the majority of chewers were children aged between six and 15. As this is the age range, during which milk teeth are lost, one theory is that tar may have been chewed on to help remove loose teeth and reduce the pain of teething.

Alternatively, children may perhaps have been given birch-bark tar to chew in the same way children today are given sweets as pacifiers.

Modern chewing gum was first developed in the 1860s when chicle was imported from Mexico for use as a substitute for rubber. Chicle did not succeed as a replacement for rubber, but as a gum it soon dominated the market.

Chicle gum, and gum made from similar latexes, had a smoother and softer texture and held flavour better. Most chewing-gum companies have now switched to synthetic gum bases because of their low price and availability.

In 1848, John B Curtis made and sold the first commercial chewing gum called the State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum, and by 1888 Thomas Adams’ “Tutti Frutti” chewing gum had become the first to be sold in a vending machine, when it was installed in a New York subway station.

It was not until 1893 that Mr Wrigley began selling his Spearmint and Juicy Fruit brands.

Meanwhile, Ms Pickin’s discovery has fuelled her enthusiasm for her chosen subject.

She added: “I was delighted to find the gum and was very excited to learn more about the history of it.

“I’m keen to work in this area in the future and I’d love to go back to the site, so I’m hoping they’re impressed by the gum and the tests come up with some interesting results.”

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NEW YORK: U.S. stocks declined Thursday for a fourth day after slumping sales growth at Cisco Systems overshadowed better-than-expected earnings forecasts at J.C. Penney and Gap.

Cisco, the biggest maker of computer networking equipment, declined to a five-month low, dragging down shares of Apple, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. J.C. Penney and Gap led retailers to their first advance this week, briefly pushing the Standard Poors 500 Index higher.

Infineon Technologies posted its biggest-ever drop in Germany, sending European shares and rival U.S. chip makers lower, on shrinking demand at mobile-phone makers.

The SP 500 lost 1.08, or 0.1 percent, to 1,325.37 around midday in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 31.38, or 0.3 percent, to 12,168.72. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 8.76, or 0.4 percent, to 2,269.99. About four stocks fell for every three that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.

Asian shares gained on customer growth at Softbank, a Japanese mobile carrier.

“The earnings recession is going to continue and technology companies are going to suffer,” said Hugh Johnson, chairman of Johnson Illington Advisors, which has $700 million under management in Albany, New York. “It looks like theyre going to get caught up in a global economic slowdown.”

Slowing growth at computer companies raised concern that the collapse of the subprime mortgage market would drag down profits at companies outside the financial industry. Fourth-quarter earnings at the 340 companies in the SP 500 that have reported results so far declined 21 percent on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Stocks also dropped after the U.S. Senate blocked a $156 billion economic stimulus measure that would extend unemployment benefits and give tax rebates to more people than envisioned in a House-passed measure supported by President George W. Bush.

Cisco slid 56 cents to $22.52. Third-quarter revenue will grow 10 percent, The chief executive John Chambers said Wednesday on a conference call, falling short of the 15 percent estimated by analysts in a survey. It was the second straight quarter that his sales forecast disappointed investors.

Bank of America slashed its price estimate for Ciscos shares by 30 percent to $23 and JPMorgan Chase downgraded the stock to “neutral” from “overweight.”

Juniper Networks, a large maker of computer networking gear, retreated 56 cents to $24.55.

Altera and Xilinx led chip makers lower after Infineon, the big European semiconductor maker, fell as much as 19 percent following its fourth-straight quarterly loss. Infineon also reduced earnings and sales forecasts. Altera decreased 31 cents to $17.16. Xilinx lost 32 cents to $20.64.

J.C. Penney rose $4.31 to $48.03. The department store chain said fourth-quarter profit may be as much as $1.80, topping the $1.65 average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Gap added $1.06 to $19.39. Fourth-quarter earnings may be as much as 35 cents a share, excluding a tax adjustment. Analysts forecast 29 cents a share, according to the mean estimate in a Bloomberg survey.

Target, the discount chain, added 98 cents to $51.98. Kohls, a department store operator, climbed $1.86 to $44.78.

“Savvy investors, seasoned retail investors, are recognizing that the equities are quite inexpensive relative to future prospects,” said Lawrence Creatura, at Clover Capital Management in Rochester, New York.

CME Group increased $37.21 to $522.46. Analysts at Bank of America recommended buying shares of the worlds largest futures market, saying the 18 percent slide Wednesday was overdone. A Justice Department opinion that the exchanges trade-processing practices may be anti-competitive was a “non-event,” according to analysts at JPMorgan.

MBIA climbed 20 cents to $14.48 after the worlds biggest bond insurer said it would bolster capital to retain its AAA credit rating. The company plans to sell $750 million of stock.

FRANKFURT: Deutsche Bank stood by its promise that there would be no more subprime surprises for investors, reporting only small write-downs Thursday for the final quarter of 2007, though its investment banking arm saw profits dive.

One of the few banks to emerge unscathed from the crisis, which has overpowered Citigroup and its Swiss rival UBS, Deutsche also proposed raising its dividend by an eighth to \4.50.

Traditionally the motor of Deutsche Banks business, investment banking has sputtered, with pretax profits in the final three months of the year of \447 million, or $655 million - down more than 50 percent.

The banks overall quarterly net profit of almost \1 billion was roughly half of what it made a year earlier but still slightly above market expectations.

Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank, also stood by his “vision” of making a pretax profit of \8.4 billion in 2008 - almost as good as the \8.7 billion reported in 2007, which was a record.

Investors applauded news that Deutsche would make write-downs of less than \50 million in leveraged finance, and none linked to subprime.

Having minimized the damages related to subprime debt, Ackermann has repeatedly said that the question is how Deutsche can prosper in the post-crash market.

For example, the bank, based in Frankfurt, was making record group profit helped by its debt trading and origination business.

But problems with debt bundled into complicated packets was at the root of the credit crisis and this has turned off investors who now prefer safer assets like gold.

Revenues, for example, from the sale and trading of debt - one of Deutsches most lucrative money spinners - fell 10 percent in the fourth quarter to \1.6 billion.

This was due to weaker trading in asset-backed securities, which have fallen out of favor with investors in the wake of the credit crash triggered by rising defaults on U.S. subprime mortgages.

“We expect conditions to remain challenging in 2008,” Ackermann said Thursday. “Uncertainties in the macro-economic environment are likely to affect businesses related to capital markets.”

Ackermann has taken center stage in a tour of German media in which he called on rivals to own up to subprime skeletons. His credibility would have suffered had the bank discovered major damage from the credit market chaos after he repeatedly said that write-downs in the third quarter had closed the subprime chapter for Deutsche.