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D: Our prehistoric ancestors used wooden handles or wooden handles, stone knives or pointed tips to make tools and weapons. I always wanted to know how they glued the stone part to the wooden part, Yaël.
Y: There is evidence that they use tar as an adhesive to glue stones to wood, Tang. Tar is a thick black liquid derived from certain organic materials, such as birch bark. The oldest archaeological site showing the use of tar is about 200,000 years old and was occupied by Neanderthals. It was not until much later, about 70,000 years ago, that there was evidence that modern people used tar.
D: But wait, Yaël. The preparation of tar is a complex multi-step process involving precise control of the temperature of the fire. Don't you need a ceramic container to hold tar? Are Neandertals capable of doing all this?
Y: No, maybe not. However, an international team of archaeologists decided to investigate whether there is a really simple way to make tar, using only materials and techniques that are familiar to the known Neanderthals. They announced their results in 2017.
D: So, what did they find?
Y: They found that there are indeed some simple ways to make tar that Neanderthals might have come up with. If a roll of birch bark is tied up with wood fibers and covered with ashes and embers from wood fire, it will secrete and retain usable amount of tar. Some more sophisticated techniques, using a pit as embers and a birch bark cup to capture the tar secreted by the volume, do better. This may be the way Neanderthals invented tar.
The process of making tar may not be as difficult as previously thought. (Anne Peterson/flickr)
Our prehistoric ancestors used wooden handles or handles and stone knives or pointed tips to make tools and weapons. But how did they glue the stone part to the wooden part?
There is evidence that they use tar as an adhesive to glue stones to wood. Tar is a thick black liquid derived from certain organic materials, such as birch bark. The oldest archaeological site showing the use of tar is about 200,000 years old and was occupied by Neanderthals. It was not until much later, about 70,000 years ago, that there was evidence that modern people used tar.
However, the preparation of tar is a complex multi-step process that involves precise control of the temperature of the fire. You need a ceramic container to hold the tar. Are Neandertals really capable of doing all this?
maybe not. However, an international team of archaeologists decided to investigate whether there is a really simple way to make tar, using only materials and techniques that are familiar to the known Neanderthals. They announced their results in 2017.
They discovered that there are indeed simple ways to make tar that Neanderthals might have come up with. If a roll of birch bark is tied up with wood fibers and covered with ashes and embers from wood fire, it will secrete and retain usable amount of tar. Some more sophisticated techniques, using a pit as embers and a birch bark cup to capture the tar secreted by the volume, do better. This may be the way Neanderthals invented tar.
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