Birch Bark Glue and its Potential Use in Neanderthal Clothing: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Evidence that Neanderthals had mastered the production of birch bark tar as an adhesive has generated important and timely debate concerning behavioural complexity. Increased resolution of the data on palaeo-climatic conditions has also brought into sharp focus the need for hominins living in high latitudes to possess complex cultural mechanisms to deal with cold environments. Whilst evidence for fire is readily available for Neanderthals, evidence for clothing remains obscure. Due to taphonomic constraints only indirect evidence for clothing can be examined. The recovery of eyed needles only from sites related to Homo sapiens, along with a longstanding presumption that Neanderthals were less culturally adaptive has resulted in a belief that Neanderthals lacked complex, tailored clothing. However, if hominins in high latitude, glacial environments needed complex clothing for survival, and other technologies might serve in place of the eyed needle, it is possible to re-focus the debate on Neanderthal clothing and cognition. In this paper we present an experimental pilot study which suggests that birch bark glue was a possible component of the Neanderthal technological repertoire for making tailored and, perhaps more importantly, waterproof garments.

Keywords

• glue
• neolithic
• skin or leather