It's possible that the first artificial material made on Earth wasn't
created by our own species but rather by a close cousin as early
as 200,000 years ago.
In a recent comprehensive chemical examination of Neanderthal artifacts
manufactured with birch tar, researchers from Strasbourg University in
France, the State Museum of Prehistory in Germany, and the University of
Tübingen in Germany came to the conclusion that the method of extraction
wasn't accidental.
Birch tar
is a thick, black ooze that has been utilized for its many adhesive,
water-repellent, and even antibacterial characteristics since the beginning
of time. It was employed by some of the first early people who inhabited
Europe to join components of their implements.
Heat can be used to remove the substance from birch bark, but it's unclear
whether Neanderthals produced the tar on purpose or merely as a byproduct of
enjoying a nice fire.
Some people believe
that black tar was created by mistake by Neanderthals who burned birch bark
and then scraped it off of nearby rocks. Others believe that long before our
species discovered the method, the sticky, water-resistant substance was
painstakingly manufactured in an underground oven.
This may seem like a pointless argument, but it is believed that
consciously extracting useful compounds from inert substances is yet another
trait that distinguishes human intelligence from that of other
animals.
This
most recent study makes
the claim that "birch tar may document advanced technology, forward
planning, and cultural capacity in Neanderthals" based on the examination of
two pieces of birch tar discovered at an archaeological site in
Germany.
The chemistry of the artifacts implies that oxygen was not present during
their development. Theoretically, there were several ways to produce this
low-oxygen profile, so researchers investigated them all.
Three of the techniques included some form of subsurface oven, while two
used burning birch bark above ground.
Birch bark was burned above ground, causing the tar to condense on sticks
or the tops of stones in the open air. The underground techniques primarily
included burying birch bark that had been wrapped up and heated.
Finally, only birch tar produced underground has the same chemical
composition as the antiquity discovered in Germany.
According to the research, Neanderthal tar is not the accidental "result of
unintentional processes in open-air fires" but rather the product of a
sophisticated underground technology that had to be meticulously planned
because it could not be overseen after it was buried.
A precise recipe would have needed to be followed in order to accomplish
such a complicated configuration. According to researchers, the method was
likely developed by trial and error, with slow advances accumulating over
time.
If Neanderthals genuinely produced tar 200,000 years ago, that would
predate any indication of Homo sapiens producing it by 100,000 years.
"Thus," the researchers write, "what we show here for the first time is
that Neanderthals invented and refined a transformative technique, most
likely independently of the influence from
Homo sapiens."
Previous research has
revealed
that Neanderthals had complicated diets that required several food
preparation stages. However, it's possible that they didn't only utilize
fire for cooking or warmth.
No longer should the intellect of our ancestors be disregarded.
The study was published in
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.
