Archaeologists analysing stone tool artefacts have discovered that Neanderthals fixed wooden handles to flint knives by means of ‘superglue’ made from birch pitch.
Despite the ‘bumbling reputation’ of Neanderthals, the ability to make the adhesive reveals substantial know-how that it would even be difficult for modern manufacturing plants to duplicate.
The smouldering process to turn birch bark into usable glue only works at a temperature of 340-400°C and under exclusion of oxygen. Lower temperatures prohibit resin in the wood from melting, and higher temperatures would burn tar exuded from the birch.
‘The very fact that birch bark pitch was identified (in the artefacts) already proclaims the intellectual and technical abilities of the Neanderthals’, the researchers concluded.
German archaeologists say a substance Neanderthals used as glue may also have been the world's first "chewing gum".
Saxony's state department of archaeology researchers say the ham-tasting substance came from birch trees.
They say Neanderthals chewed on the 80,000-year-old birch pitch to help them relax and to combat toothache. The substance was found in Aschersleben. It's the size of an olive.
Department spokesman Heinrich Wunderlich says: "The pitch was used to bind stone weapons on to sticks. It was also used as chewing-gum because of its disinfectant qualities which combated toothache. The gum also helped to clean teeth.
"It tastes a bit like smoked Black Forest ham. I don't think it would catch on today."
Earlier this month, scientists announced finding the substance in Germany's Harz mountains. One of the pitch pieces bears the print of a finger and there are also imprints of a flint stone tool and wood, suggesting the pitch served as a sort of glue to secure a wooden shaft to a flint stone blade.
The team, led by Professor Dietrich Mania of Freidrich-Schiller University in Jena, said: "This implies the Neanderthals did not come across these pitches by accident but must have produced them with intent."
"The pitch finds demonstrate that the Neanderthals must have possessed a high degree of technical and manual abilities, comparable to those of modern Homo sapiens.''
Sources: Ananova, SciTech Daily