Archaeologists analysing stone tool artefacts have discovered that Neanderthals fixed wooden handles to flint knives by means of �superglue� made from birch pitch.

Despite the �bumbling reputation� of Neanderthals, the ability to make the adhesive reveals substantial know-how that it would even be difficult for modern manufacturing plants to duplicate.

The smouldering process to turn birch bark into usable glue only works at a temperature of 340-400�C and under exclusion of oxygen. Lower temperatures prohibit resin in the wood from melting, and higher temperatures would burn tar exuded from the birch.

�The very fact that birch bark pitch was identified (in the artefacts) already proclaims the intellectual and technical abilities of the Neanderthals�, the researchers concluded.

Neanderthal Superglue 'Was World's
First Chewing Gum'

German archaeologists say a substance Neanderthals used as glue may also have been the world's first "chewing gum".

Saxony's state department of archaeology researchers say the ham-tasting substance came from birch trees.

They say Neanderthals chewed on the 80,000-year-old birch pitch to help them relax and to combat toothache. The substance was found in Aschersleben. It's the size of an olive.

Department spokesman Heinrich Wunderlich says: "The pitch was used to bind stone weapons on to sticks. It was also used as chewing-gum because of its disinfectant qualities which combated toothache. The gum also helped to clean teeth.

"It tastes a bit like smoked Black Forest ham. I don't think it would catch on today."

Earlier this month, scientists announced finding the substance in Germany's Harz mountains. One of the pitch pieces bears the print of a finger and there are also imprints of a flint stone tool and wood, suggesting the pitch served as a sort of glue to secure a wooden shaft to a flint stone blade.

The team, led by Professor Dietrich Mania of Freidrich-Schiller University in Jena, said: "This implies the Neanderthals did not come across these pitches by accident but must have produced them with intent."

"The pitch finds demonstrate that the Neanderthals must have possessed a high degree of technical and manual abilities, comparable to those of modern Homo sapiens.''

Sources: Ananova, SciTech Daily

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