Summer is peak season for archaeological excavations, and this is when many significant discoveries are made.
Sometimes, years of planning and digging are required before something spectacular is uncovered; other times, they stumble upon treasures by sheer chance. Both types of discoveries are invaluable for our understanding of the past.
Archaeologist Anette Sand-Eriksen retrieves her favourite find from deep within the storage collections of the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo.
"It's organic, and we almost never find organic material," Sand-Eriksen says about the small brown lump she has taken out of a plastic bag.
To an untrained eye, it appears to be nothing more than an indistinct lump of brown material.
It was discovered among thousands of stone fragments at a site in Agder, southern Norway, where people lived during the Stone Age.
But it may have been part of a toolkit used to make arrows 6,000 years ago, or someone may have chewed on it, Sand-Eriksen explains.
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In someone’s mouth thousands of years ago?
What is it like to find something with such a direct connection to a person who lived several thousand years ago?
Anette Sand-Eriksen shows the inside of the lump. It was split in two for analysis.(Photo: Lasse Biørnstad / Science Norway)
Sand-Eriksen points out that archaeologists constantly work with objects made by prehistoric people.
"We encounter things like this all the time. In a way, it just becomes part of everyday life," she says, adding:
"But when you ask about it, and you start reflecting on it, you begin to realise, ‘wow, it's actually kind of crazy.’ Another human chewed on this 6,000 years ago, and now I'm holding it."
After lying underground for thousands of years, the lump is now part of the collections at the Museum of Cultural History.
We'll return to what it actually is and why it was found here.
A new road was to be built
The site where the lump was found is a place where people either lived or used as a stopping point during the Stone Age in Agder.
The view from the excavation site.(Photo: Anette Sand-Eriksen / Museum of Cultural History)
The place is called Ime and is located in Lindesnes municipality.
Before the large new section of the European route E39 between Kristiansand and Mandal could be built, many areas along the route had to be examined for traces of the region's ancient inhabitants.
Another archaeologist working on the excavation spotted the lump while sorting through all the stone debris, and Sand-Eriksen quickly realised they had found something special.
A lush hill overlooking a sheltered bay
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People have lived in this part of Norway since the end of the last Ice Age. The oldest known human remains in Norway were found on a small islet in Søgne, a little farther to the east.
Anette Sand-Eriksen examines the lump of resin.(Photo: Lasse Biørnstad / Science Norway)
The remains are known as the Woman of Søgne, and she lived around 8,000 years ago.
When the Stone Age site at Ime was excavated, it was a small hill in a lush landscape. The site had been used for thousands of years, and during the Stone Age it overlooked a sheltered bay.
"It was the perfect place to come ashore with a boat," she says.
Found arrowheads and hazelnut shells
People stopped here to make food and arrowheads.
The archaeologists found numerous rough stone arrowheads and waste material from their production. Resin may have been used in connection with this work.
They also found evidence of cooking.
"We found a kind of roasting oven," Sand-Eriksen says. "They built a small oven and roasted their hazelnuts."
They then removed the shells to eat the nuts. The archaeologists found large quantities of roasted hazelnut shells here, something commonly found at many Stone Age settlements, Sand-Eriksen explains.
And then there was this brown lump, which turned out to be heat-treated resin. It is full of bubbles inside, suggesting that it had been heated.
An overview image showing approximately where the coastline may have been during the Stone Age. The site where the lump was found is at the lower right, labelled Ime Myrane.(Photo: Anette Sand-Eriksen / Museum of Cultural History / Steinar Kristensen)
A scent emerged from the lump
The lump may have been used to make arrows. Resin can act as an adhesive and was used to attach arrowheads to their shafts. Archaeologists have found intact arrows with resin still holding the points in place.
Radiocarbon dating showed the lump is around 6,000 years old. It was also analysed at a lab in Denmark.
Researchers identified it as resin from a conifer tree. To examine it, they cut the lump in half and inserted a heated needle.
"That released a strong scent of conifers. It's a by-product of tree resin or tar," says Sand-Eriksen.
Even after 6,000 years, the powerful scent of conifer had been preserved.
Exactly what the lump was used for remains uncertain. It may have been wrapped in a leaf or something similar, since it has impressions of fine lines on the surface.
Three arrowheads found at Ime. They are rough and appear to have been made quickly.(Photo: Anette Sand-Eriksen / Museum of Cultural History)
Could the lump reveal who chewed it?
Chewed pieces of resin have been found at other archaeological sites, but this lump has no clear tooth marks.
Its shape may indicate that someone held it against the roof of their mouth, though this remains speculation.
Lumps of resin can preserve DNA. They are often referred to as Stone Age chewing gum.
Tiny fragments of genetic material can become trapped inside the resin. This means it may be possible to extract DNA from preserved resin and learn something about the person who actually chewed it.
No such analysis has been carried out on the resin lump from Ime in Agder. It was not included in the archaeological project when the site was excavated.
Sand-Eriksen has worked on numerous excavations, including high-profile discoveries such as the Gjellestad Viking ship and the Viking grave at Harkmark, which you can read more about here (link in Norwegian).
But when Science Norway asked her to choose her favourite find, she immediately thought of this lump of resin.
"It's something we don't find very often, and it's a bit mysterious. It hasn't provided any definitive answers, and it's full of potential," Sand-Eriksen believes.
"It's not a typical, eye-catching archaeological artefact," she adds.
Sand-Eriksen believes it has been somewhat overlooked.
