A closer look at the birch tar that was used to attach Neanderthal tools by researchers at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and colleagues in Germany revealed a much more complicated method for creating the adhesive than was previously thought.
The team compared various methods of producing birch tar to chemical residues found on ancient Neanderthal tools in their paper, “Production method of the Königsaue birch tar documents cumulative culture in Neanderthals,” which was published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.
The capacity to synthesize substances and materials that are not found in nature is one of the characteristics of human intelligence. The use of tools used to be a part of this, but now that several animals have been found modifying and manipulating materials to be used as tools, it is less of a unique indicator of intelligent behavior.
“It is implausible that something with this level of complexity would have developed on its own. suggesting that the more complex procedure would have been evolved through trial from simpler methods at first.”
According to the authors, at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen.
Because converting raw materials through a learned process requires sentient thinking, planning, and comprehension of our actions, synthetic material manufacturing remains a significant aspect of our cognitive advantage over other animals.
The findings of the Tübingen study show that modern humans are not the only ones with this ability and that they were not the first to reach this mental milestone. By 100,000 years, the Neanderthals’ use of birch tar predates any known human adaptation. In tools and weapons, the sticky material was used as an adhesive backing to connect stone to bone and wood. It was also resistant to organic decomposition and water.
How Neanderthals made birch tar has been hypothesized to be either a fabricated cycle or a found substance rejected from rocks after a fire. Through a relative substance examination of two birch tar pieces from Germany and a huge reference birch tar assortment made with Stone Age strategies, the scientists found that Neanderthals didn’t just track down birch tar after a fire, nor did they utilize the least difficult assembling strategy.
All things considered, scientists have found that the Neanderthals who made the German birch tar utilized the most effective strategy with a stepwise oxygen-confined refining interaction of underground warming to separate the engineered cement.
As per the creators, “This level of intricacy is probably not going to have been developed unexpectedly.” implying that the method would have been developed through experimentation with simpler methods in the beginning.
The researchers engaged in experimental archaeology by replicating five distinct extraction methods—two above ground and three below ground—to test the process that produced the German birch tar. The team used infrared spectroscopy, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and microcomputed tomography after the birch tar was extracted to examine and contrast their tar-making methods with those of the ancient birch tar artifacts.
On the experimental tars, the presence of oxygen at the time of extraction left a distinct mark that distinguished between above-ground and below-ground methods. The below-ground manufacturing process was replicated by the ancient artifacts. In contrast to the above-ground methods, the below-ground experiments, ancient tar artifacts, and some soil mineral interactions were free of soot-related carbons.
Because some elements cannot be observed or corrected after the procedure begins, underground transformative techniques are trickier to execute than above-ground techniques, necessitating a more precise setup procedure.
Archaeological evidence reveals that many of the technological firsts considered to be modern human inventions were already in use by Neanderthals, bolstering the case for cognitively complex Neanderthals. Recognizing that Neanderthals were also humans may now be beneficial to those who prefer to view human intelligence as an exceptional, unique quality.
“Neanderthal birch tar making appears to be the first documented manifestation of this kind in human evolution,” the authors assert.
More information: Patrick Schmidt et al, Production method of the Königsaue birch tar documents cumulative culture in Neanderthals, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1007/s12520-023-01789-2
