Archaeologists have stumbled on the remains of a Neanderthal workshop, revealing for the first time how they believe Neanderthals produced tree-based glues and adhesives used to manufacture wooden and stone spears, perfumes and even medicines.
That is according to researchers from the University of Murcia, who discovered these so-called “glue factories” that produced adhesives used tar from birch bark trees in the ruins of fireplaces evacuated from a Vanguard cave in Gibraltar—close to Gorham’s Cave Complex, a UNESCO World Heritage site recognised as a haven for Neanderthal discoveries.
Published in Quaternary Science Reviews, A Neanderthal’s specialised burning structure compatible with tar obtention, the archeologists describe the conditions of hearth used by Neanderthals to make adhesive tar. Using optically stimulated luminescence dating – which measures the time since quartz crystals were exposed to light – they established that the ancient fireplaces date back 67,000 and 60,000 years ago— more than 20,000 years before modern humans arrived in Europe, a time when Neanderthals were the only known hominins in the region.
“Stone tools and the fossils of birds and small mammals in the caves suggest the area was a productive Neanderthal hunting ground—a “Mediterranean Serengeti,” according to paleoecologist Juan Ochando, the study’s lead author. “Part of what made Neanderthals such effective hunters was their use of tar to attach sharp stone tools to the tips of wooden spears,” he said.
Wood Central understands that the earliest evidence of tar-based Neanderthal technology comes from Central Italy and dates back more than 190,000 years. Ochando’s team found traces of ash, charcoal, and what they believe to be tar crystals mixed in with the remains of zinc and copper in the hearth. The latter, they said, suggests that it was sealed with guano and sand, protecting plant materials from catching fire—conditions needed to create tar.
“Charcoal within the hearth came from several different plants, including rockrose (Cistus ladanifer), a flowering plant that produces a sticky resin called labdanum in its leaves,” the researchers said, who dug a fireplace to show how birch bark tar can flint arrowheads to wooden handles. Reflecting on the findings, Ochando hopes the new findings “may serve as a starting point for other researchers when identifying these structures in other archaeological sites.”
- To learn more about Neanderthals’ relationship with wooden objectives, click here for Wood Central’s special feature looking at how archaeologists are now analysing 300,000-plus-year-old wooden tools, shaking up cultural appropriations of the Old World and the relationships between Neanderthals and Homo Saipans.
