Dhe idea of the two-component adhesive is probably more than 40,000 years old. This is the result of recent research by the Department of Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology at the University of Tübingen and the State Museums for Early History in Berlin. Neanderthals, who lived in what is now the Dordogne in France, mixed bitumen and ocher to make an adhesive.
In 1907, the archaeologist Otto Hauser discovered stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic era on a rocky outcrop in Le Moustier. They were then kept for decades but were not examined in more detail. When the collection was reassembled internally, the researchers examined the adhesive traces microscopically.
Better understand incarnation
For the researcher Patrick Schmidt, the discovery of prehistoric processes contributes to a better understanding of the incarnation. The adhesive technology study shows that similar thought patterns must have prevailed among early Homo sapiens in Africa and among the Neanderthals in Europe. Adhesive residues were found on several stone tools – scrapers or blades – and both components were procured from other regions at the time.
Bitumen is found in some soils and ocher is an earth pigment. If you enrich liquid bitumen with ocher, you get a malleable mass. “We were surprised,” says Schmidt, “that the ocher content was more than 50 percent.” This mixture is ideal for bonding a stone blade to a handle. For archaeologists, the development of adhesives is evidence of the development of human cognitive abilities.
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