ArticleScientific reports2017
Experimental methods for the Palaeolithic dry distillation of birch bark: implications for the origin and development of Neandertal adhesive technology.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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25 citing papers in PubMed, 120 citations in OpenAlex.
- An archaeo-metabolomics approach for identifying cedar tar in archaeological samples: differentiating plant products and production processes.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Antibacterial properties of experimentally produced birch tar and its medicinal affordances in the Pleistocene.PloS one · 2026Article
- Neandertal Cold Adaptation: Technological, Anatomical, and Physiological Responses to Cold Stress in One of Our Closest Fossil Relatives.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Article
- Ochre-based compound adhesives at the Mousterian type-site document complex cognition and high investment.Science advances · 2024Article
- Differences in birch tar composition are explained by adhesive function in the central European Iron Age.PloS one · 2024Article
- Measuring ancient technological complexity and its cognitive implications using Petri nets.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Identifying Palaeolithic birch tar production techniques: challenges from an experimental biomolecular approach.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Scaling Palaeolithic tar production processes exponentially increases behavioural complexity.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Production method of the Königsaue birch tar documents cumulative culture in Neanderthals.Archaeological and anthropological sciences · 2023Article
- Article
- Archaeological evidence for thinking about possibilities in hominin evolution.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
- Archaeological adhesives made fromProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- A new method for birch tar making with materials available in the Stone Age.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Stimuli-responsive temporary adhesives: enabling debonding on demand through strategic molecular design.Chemical science · 2021Review
- Biodegradability of Novel Polylactide and Polycaprolactone Materials with Bacteriostatic Properties Due to Embedded Birch Tar in Different Environments.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
- Tracking the transition to agriculture in Southern Europe through ancient DNA analysis of dental calculus.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- The Zandmotor data do not resolve the question whether Middle Paleolithic birch tar making was complex or not.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Reply to Schmidt et al.: Interpretation of Paleolithic adhesive production: Combining experimental and paleoenvironmental information.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Birch bark tar in early Medieval England - Continuity of tradition or technological revival?Journal of archaeological science, reports · 2020Article
- A 5700 year-old human genome and oral microbiome from chewed birch pitch.Nature communications · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The destructive distillation of birch bark to produce tar has recently featured in debates about the technological and cognitive abilities of Neandertals and modern humans. The abilities to precisely control fire temperatures and to manipulate adhesive properties are believed to require advanced mental traits. However, the significance given to adhesive technology in these debates has quickly outgrown our understanding of birch bark tar and its manufacture using aceramic techniques. In this paper, we detail three experimental methods of Palaeolithic tar production ranging from simple to complex. We recorded the fuel, time, materials, temperatures, and tar yield for each method and compared them with the tar known from the Palaeolithic. Our results indicate that it is possible to obtain useful amounts of tar by combining materials and technology already in use by Neandertals. A ceramic container is not required, and temperature control need not be as precise as previously thought. However, Neandertals must have been able to recognize certain material properties, such as adhesive tack and viscosity. In this way, they could develop the technology from producing small traces of tar on partially burned bark to techniques capable of manufacturing quantities of tar equal to those found in the Middle Palaeolithic archaeological record.
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