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Cover Photo: An artist’s reconstruction shows how a Neanderthal could hold a stone artifact with an adhesive handle. Daniela Greiner ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ More than 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals in what is now France used a multi-component adhesive to make handles for stone tools. They produced a sophisticated mixture of ochre and bitumen, two raw materials that had to be procured from the wider region. This is the earliest discovery of a multi-component adhesive in Europe to date. This complex adhesive found on Neanderthal stone tools has given researchers new insights into the intelligence of this extinct human species. The work, reported...

Birch bark tar, the oldest glue in the world, was in use for at least 50,000 years, from the Palaeolithic Period up until the time of the Gauls. Made by heating birch bark, it served as an adhesive for hafting tools and decorating objects. Scientists mistakenly thought it had been abandoned in western Europe at the end of the Iron Age (800-25 BC) and replaced by conifer resins, around which a full-fledged industry developed during the Roman period. But by studying artefacts that date back to the first six centuries AD through the lens of chemistry, archaeology, and textual analysis,...

Stone Age humans chewed birch bark pitch, or birch tar, to make a glue-like paste that could be used for tool construction and other kinds of technology. Photo by Jorre/Wikimedia Commons/CC ================================================================ May 15 (UPI) -- Scientists have recovered human DNA from 10,000-year-old chewing gum found in Sweden. The DNA is the oldest to be sequenced from the region. Researchers found the masticated lumps of birch bark pitch, a sap-like tar, among the remains of an early Mesolithic hunter-fisher site called Huseby Klev, located on Sweden's west coast. During the Stone Age, humans used the bark-derived chewing gum as a...

Broken arrows and worn stone gear speak to the plight of the ancient alpine hunter. Before his violent death 5,300 years ago, the man known as Ötzi the Iceman was carrying all the essentials, from bark storage containers to an axe. Now, an analysis suggests that many of his stone tools were old and worn, hinting at the travails of the iceman's final hours. Ursula Wierer at the provincial Department of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape in Florence, Italy, and her colleagues examined artefacts found in the Alps near Ötzi's mummified remains. His stone knife was well worn and his...

Chewed tar is an unexpectedly great source of ancient DNA. No one today quite understands how they did it, but people in the Stone Age could turn ribbons of birch bark into sticky, black tar. They used this tar to make tools, fixing arrowheads onto arrows and blades onto axes. And they chewed it, as evidenced by teeth marks in some lumps. These unassuming lumps of chewed birch-bark tar turn out to be an extraordinary source of ancient DNA. This month, two separate research groups posted preprints describing DNA from the tar in Stone Age Scandinavia. The two papers have...

In a gripping instance of Stone Age survival, Neandertals used a tarlike substance to fasten sharpened stones to handles as early as 70,000 years ago, a new study suggests. Stone points and sharpened flakes unearthed in Syria since 2000 contain the residue of bitumen -- a natural, adhesive substance -- on spots where the implements would have been secured to handles of some type, according to a team led by archaeologist Eric Boëda of University of Paris X, Nanterre. The process of attaching a tool to a handle is known as hafting. The Neandertals likely found the bitumen in nearby...

Neanderthals clever enough to make 'superglue' Researchers say Neanderthals had considerable technical and intellectual skills and were as ingenious as modern humans. German scientists say they have found Neanderthals mixed a kind of superglue to make tools. It had to be made at a precise temperature and means the race had considerable technical and manual skills in comparison to their dullard image. Neanderthals are thought to have first appeared around 230,000 to 300,000 years ago. Professor Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London, said the discovery is potentially very important: "It would further ...