Neanderthal research about birch tar techniques (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, May 31, 2023, 04:14 (542 days ago) @ David Turell

Used as an adhesive, the Neanderthals developed an underground concentrating technique:

https://phys.org/news/2023-05-neanderthals-synthetic-material-underground-distillation....

"Researchers at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and colleagues in Germany have taken a closer look at the birch tar used to affix Neanderthal tools and found a much more complex technique for creating the adhesive than previously considered.

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"Synthetic material manufacturing remains a significant aspect of our cognitive advantage over other animals, as it requires sentient thinking, planning and comprehension of our actions to convert raw materials through a learned process.

"The Tübingen study illustrates that modern humans are not alone in this ability and were not the first to reach this mental milestone. The birch tar used by Neanderthals predates any known adaptation by modern humans by 100,000 years. The sticky material was used as an adhesive backing to connect stone to bone and wood in tools and weapons, with the added benefit of being water-resistant and resistant to organic decomposition.

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"Through a comparative chemical analysis of two birch tar pieces from Germany and a large reference birch tar collection made with Stone Age techniques, the researchers found that Neanderthals did not simply find birch tar after a fire, nor did they use the simplest manufacturing method.

"Instead, researchers have discovered that the Neanderthals who made the German birch tar used the most efficient method with a stepwise oxygen-restricted distillation process of underground heating to extract the synthetic adhesive.

"According to the authors, "This degree of complexity is unlikely to have been invented spontaneously." Suggesting that the technique would have started with simpler methods and been developed into the more complex process by experimentation.

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"Oxygen availability at the time of extraction left a clear marker on the experimental tars, creating a signature that clearly separated above-ground from below-ground methods. The ancient artifacts matched the below-ground manufacturing process. Both ancient tar artifacts and the below-ground experiments showed some soil mineral interaction and were free from soot-related carbons, unlike the above-ground techniques.

"Underground transformative techniques are trickier to execute than above-ground techniques because some elements cannot be observed or corrected after the procedure begins requiring a more precise set-up procedure.

"The evidence for cognitively complex Neanderthals has only increased in recent years, as archaeological evidence reveals many of the technological firsts thought to be modern human inventions were already in use among Neanderthals. At this point, it may benefit anyone who prefers thinking of human intelligence as an exceptional uniqueness to concede that Neanderthals were humans too."

Comment: more evidence that the Neanderthals were pretty bright fellows. Underground distillation is an advanced technique not suited to the sand box.