Chewing Gum used for other Purposes

6th May 2012

Mexicolore contributor on the Aztecs Jennifer Mathews

As a ‘footnote’ to our features on chewing gum in ancient Mexico, Professor Jennifer Mathews has kindly written this extra article. Though we have no firm evidence, it is virtually certain that Mesoamerican peoples made use of gum latex to stick, bind and seal materials together...

In addition to chewing chicle latex, ancient peoples undoubtedly used it for many practical purposes such as adhesives or sealants. Although chroniclers often failed to document these uses, we can find examples of how similar kinds of natural materials were used in other ways around the world. For example, we know that in addition to chicle latex, the Aztecs chewed bitumen, or chapapote, an aromatic and flaky black natural petroleum tar that washed up onto the beaches of the Gulf Coast of Mexico, an area of major oil drilling today.

In different parts of the world, bitumen and other naturally sticky substances have been used as adhesives and sealants. For example, the ancient Sumerians used it to waterproof their ships, as a kind of glue to stick pieces together on their carvings, or even as a kind of mortar between the bricks used in their buildings. Ancient Europeans, like Ötzi the Ice Man, a 5,300-year-old ice mummy found in the Italian Alps, also heated birch wood to force the tar to seep out and used it to haft his copper axe on a wooden handle.

We also know that the artisans among the Coclé people of Panama filled large gold ear rods with chicle latex. The gum served to hold separate pieces of goldwork together, as well as reinforced the thin sheets of gold from which the rods were made. Ancient Maya artisans used a thin layer of copal incense, which is a resin that was often mixed with chicle and burned, to adhere cinnabar to greenstone objects. The also used it as a binder for the paint pigments in the famous murals at the site of Bonampak in Chiapas.

In North America, Native American Indians and Inuit have used gum from the spruce tree to waterproof canoes as well as for chewing. One Pima legend even describes a wind spirit telling a man and woman to collect the chewing gum to protect them from disaster. “Suha, you and your good wife are the only people worth saving. Go and make a large, hollow ball of spruce gum in which you and
your wife can live as long as the coming flood will last.” They obeyed the spirit, and after the great flood they emerged from their chewing gum ark to find that they were the only survivors on earth.

NOTE: Professor Mathews has kindly supplied academic references in support of the points mentioned in her article. If you would like details of these, please contact Mexicolore.

Picture sources:-
• Pic 1: photo by Carl Wendt, from arqueomex.com
• Pic 2: from http://allmesopotamia.wordpress.com/tag/bitumen/
• Pic 3: Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979
• Pic 4: photo by Judy Kavanagh, from http://jumaka.com/birchbarkcanoe/materialspage/gum.htm

‘The Birth of the Chewing Gum Tree’

Comments (2)

Katia H.

19th Jun 2012

Interesting article - did the Aztecs ever make use of any other petroleum products?

Mexicolore

Interesting question! Not that we know of, but we could easily be wrong. Perhaps someone will put us right on this...

Mia Ibanez

18th May 2012

I enjoyed the information written by Professor Mathews. I have 9 miniatures fashined from chewing gum which I brought back from Guadalajara in the 60s - I plan to list them on ebay. I have been selling many items/artifacts from Mexico since 1998 Thank you for the opportunity to give feedback - I plan to buy the book written by Professor Mathews
Kind regards

Aztecs

Maya

Chewing Gum used for other Purposes

Comments (2)

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