iBet uBet web content aggregator. Adding the entire web to your favor.
iBet uBet web content aggregator. Adding the entire web to your favor.



Link to original content: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31427508
Birch tar production does not prove Neanderthal behavioral complexity - PubMed Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Sep 3;116(36):17707-17711.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1911137116. Epub 2019 Aug 19.

Birch tar production does not prove Neanderthal behavioral complexity

Patrick Schmidt  1   2 , Matthias Blessing  3 , Maxime Rageot  3 , Radu Iovita  3   4 , Johannes Pfleging  4   5   6 , Klaus G Nickel  2 , Ludovic Righetti  6   7 , Claudio Tennie  3
Affiliations

Birch tar production does not prove Neanderthal behavioral complexity

Patrick Schmidt et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

Birch tar production by Neanderthals-used for hafting tools-has been interpreted as one of the earliest manifestations of modern cultural behavior. This is because birch tar production per se was assumed to require a cognitively demanding setup, in which birch bark is heated in anaerobic conditions, a setup whose inherent complexity was thought to require modern levels of cognition and cultural transmission. Here we demonstrate that recognizable amounts of birch tar were likely a relatively frequent byproduct of burning birch bark (a natural tinder) under common, i.e., aerobic, conditions. We show that when birch bark burns close to a vertical to subvertical hard surface, such as an adjacent stone, birch tar is naturally deposited and can be easily scraped off the surface. The burning of birch bark near suitable surfaces provides useable quantities of birch tar in a single work session (3 h; including birch bark procurement). Chemical analysis of the resulting tar showed typical markers present in archaeological tar. Mechanical tests verify the tar's suitability for hafting and for hafted tools use. Given that similarly sized stones as in our experiment are frequently found in archaeological contexts associated with Neanderthals, the cognitively undemanding connection between burning birch bark and the production of birch tar would have been readily discoverable multiple times. Thus, the presence of birch tar alone cannot indicate the presence of modern cognition and/or cultural behaviors in Neanderthals.

Keywords: Neanderthal birch tar; adhesives; cognitive complexity; early pyrotechnology; modern behaviors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Experimental birch tar making with the condensation technique. (A) Schematic drawing of the experimental setup: a cobble (1) with an inclined surface overhanging a piece of birch bark (2) is used as support for the condensation of birch tar directly above the burning bark (3). (B) Photo taken during experimentation using the setup shown in A. (C) Photo of the cobble surface where tar can be scraped off and the stone tool used for scraping. (D) Photo of a 0.62-g piece of tar produced in a single 3-h session (including bark collection).
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Analysis of birch tar produced by the condensation technique. (A) experimental setup using the robot arm for wood scraping under controlled conditions. (B) Actualistic defleshing experiment using the same hafted tool as in A. (C) Three photos taken of a single sample at different moments during a lap shear test, (Left) 93.3 MPa before plastic deformation of the tar; (Middle) 90.7 MPa at the beginning of plastic deformation; and (Right) after failure of the tar. (D) Chromatogram of tar produced with the condensation technique showing biomarkers and markers of heat treatment: 1 = lupa-2,20 (29)-diene; 2 = α-betuline I; 3 = lupa-2,20 (29)-dien-28-ol; 4 = lupeol; 5 = betulin. RT, retention time.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Roebroeks W., Soressi M., Neandertals revised. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 113, 6372–6379 (2016). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kozowyk P. R. B., Soressi M., Pomstra D., Langejans G. H. J., Experimental methods for the Palaeolithic dry distillation of birch bark: Implications for the origin and development of Neandertal adhesive technology. Sci. Rep. 7, 8033 (2017). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wragg Sykes R. M., “To see a world in a hafted tool: Birch pitch composite technology, cognition and memory in Neanderthals” in Settlement, Society and Cognition in Human Evolution: Landscapes in the Mind, Coward F., Hosfield R., Pope M., Wenban-Smith F., Eds. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2015), pp. 117–137.
    1. Mazza P., et al. , A new Palaeolithic discovery: Tar-hafted stone tools in a European Mid-Pleistocene bone-bearing bed. J. Archaeol. Sci. 33, 1310–1318 (2006).
    1. Koller J., Baumer U., Mania D., High-tech in the middle Palaeolithic: Neandertal-manufactured pitch identified. Eur. J. Archaeol. 4, 385–397 (2001).

LinkOut - more resources