Our prehistoric ancestors made tools and weapons with wooden shafts or handles, and stone blades or points. But how did they stick the stone part to the wooden part?
There is evidence that they used tar as an adhesive to stick stone onto wood. Tar is a viscous black liquid that comes from certain organic materials, such as birch bark. The oldest archaeological sites showing tar use are about two hundred thousand years old, and were occupied by Neanderthal humans. There is no evidence that modern humans used tar until much later, about seventy thousand years ago.
However, making tar is a complicated multi-step process involving exact control of the temperature of the fire. And you need ceramic containers to hold the tar, did Neanderthals really have the capabilities to do all that?
Probably not. But, an international team of archaeologists decided to investigate whether there are really simple ways to make tar, using only materials and techniques that Neanderthals are known to have been familiar with. They published their results in 2017.
They found out that there really are simple ways to make tar that a Neanderthal could have figured out. If a roll of birch bark is tied with wood fiber and covered with ashes and embers from a wood fire, it will secrete and hold usable amounts of tar. Somewhat more sophisticated techniques, using a pit for the embers and a birch bark cup to capture the tar secreted by the roll, do even better. And that’s probably how Neanderthals invented tar.
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Sources
- Newsweek - Neanderthal Glue: How Our Prehistoric Relatives Learned To Make Tar For Tools And Weapons
- ScienceDaily - How Neanderthals Made The Very First Glue
- ScienceNews - Fiery Re-Creatioins Show How Neanderthals Could Have Easily Made Tar
- Nature Scientific Reports - Experimental Methods For The Paleolithic Dry Distillation Of Birch Bark: Implications For The Origin And Development Of Neanderthal Adhesive Technology
D: Our prehistoric ancestors made tools and weapons with wooden shafts or handles, and stone blades or points. I’ve always wondered how they stuck the stone part to the wooden part, Yaël.
Y: There is evidence that they used tar as an adhesive to stick stone onto wood, Don. Tar is a viscous black liquid that comes from certain organic materials, such as birch bark. The oldest archaeological sites showing tar use are about two hundred thousand years old, and were occupied by Neanderthal humans. There is no evidence that modern humans used tar until much later, about seventy thousand years ago.
D: But wait a minute, Yaël. Making tar is a complicated multi-step process involving exact control of the temperature of the fire. And don’t you need ceramic containers to hold the tar? Did Neanderthals have the capabilities to do all that?
Y: No, probably not. But, an international team of archaeologists decided to investigate whether there are really simple ways to make tar, using only materials and techniques that Neanderthals are known to have been familiar with. They published their results in 2017.
D: So, what did they find out?
Y: They found out that there really are simple ways to make tar that a Neanderthal could have figured out. If a roll of birch bark is tied with wood fiber and covered with ashes and embers from a wood fire, it will secrete and hold usable amounts of tar. Somewhat more sophisticated techniques, using a pit for the embers and a birch bark cup to capture the tar secreted by the roll, do even better. And that’s probably how Neanderthals invented tar.