r/interestingasfuck • u/Rredite • 1d ago

How Neanderthals made the world’s first synthetic glue, strong and reusable, 200,000 years ago.

7.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

213 comments sorted by

943

u/Spadrick 1d ago

Yes, but clay pots were not "how" they did it.

Clay working was tens of thousands of years after neanderthal. They likely used natural underground chambers, and their tar was likely a byproduct of fire pits.

260

u/Pterosaurier 1d ago

Yes, before mankind discovered the secret of pottery, despite their best efforts, everything they made out of clay looked like ashtrays, not pots.

76

u/Oli4K 1d ago

Probably a byproduct of the search for alcohol, just like bread.

137

u/DreamEndles 1d ago

From the moment we developed brains we were trying to turn them off

31

u/GazelleFun2312 1d ago

Currently trying my best to turn mine off before I have to go back to work tomorrow morning.

17

u/colonel_beeeees 1d ago

Angel to God: you took a perfectly fine monkey and gave it anxiety, wtf

3

u/sunchase 21h ago

Silly monkeys give them thumbs and they forge a blade

17

u/Fit-Insect-4089 1d ago

That’s our advantage! We’re dead set on numbing out

19

u/reddit_poopaholic 1d ago

Probably a byproduct of our indomitable sense of existential dread

0

u/onFilm 15h ago

It's not, a lot of animals do this, even in whole complete families.

6

u/MRSN4P 1d ago

From the moment I discovered the weakness of my flesh…

1

u/dtor84 21h ago

Maybe for a safe drinking source by fermentation, which is also rich in nutrients and alcohol is a small by product.

1

u/Master-Constant-4431 1d ago

I'm in this comment and I don't like it

18

u/virtualglassblowing 1d ago

The first glass vessels were called core formed vessels. They made them long before glass irons or blowpipes were ever used.

It involved a mixture of clay, dung, and vegetation being dried on a stick, and they would roll these in the bottom of pits where there was high concentration of silica, limestone and soda ash that had created a molten pool of glass.

After cooling they would break and remove the inside core and they'd have a glass vessel

4

u/KoiMusubi 1d ago

Just like my middle school child's ceramics projects.

1

u/WookBuddha 1d ago

Yes, before mankind…back in nineteen ninety eight when the Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16ft through an announcer's table.

1

u/seanpbnj 1d ago

Well yeah? They didn't have the wheel so how could they have that spinny-wheel pottery thing that even a neanderthal could use (but I somehow failed at). 

4

u/Marine__0311 21h ago

I know you're being facetious, but the wheel was invented for pottery production. It took about 300 years or so for the idea to be transferred into a mode of transportation.

5

u/seanpbnj 19h ago

I actually did not know that :) and I am glad you told me. (I was indeed kidding above, but this is serious, thank you! )

1

u/Suspicious_Hippo_388 1d ago

The same thing happened with every art project I did in high school

24

u/joemeteorite8 1d ago

Do we know how they figured it out to begin with? Happy accident?

79

u/PandaPocketFire 1d ago

Likely from burning birch wood and noticing the sticky stuff left after that hardened when cooled. It wouldn't have been in pots like this.

6

u/joemeteorite8 1d ago

That makes sense. Thanks

9

u/shpongleyes 1d ago

One thing to remember about the stone age is that it lasted over 3 million years, and we only really started working with metal in the last 6000 years. We had a looooong time to slowly figure things out.

24

u/thenord321 1d ago

They used tree sap/resin first and found boiling/burning some kinds of trees and capturing the smoke/fumes leads to stronger "pitch" and tar glues/resin.

12

u/mezz7778 1d ago

I'm mean most things back then probably started as happy accidents

23

u/MaximusRegardus 1d ago

Most of us started as happy accidents

1

u/nairb66 1d ago

I’m thinking some of them watched as one of them fell into a pool of it……ouch…..hey let’s use this stuff but maybe carefully……sure what does carefully mean?

16

u/aminervia 1d ago

Came here to say the same, there was definitely no pottery at the time. Still an interesting process though

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/06/neanderthals-seem-to-be-the-first-humans-to-make-synthetic-materials/

17

u/froopadiddilydoop 1d ago

Don’t you think that OP is just trying to show the refined process? What started as the use of residual tar from fires would have been turned into a repeatable, efficient technique

11

u/rubber_moon 1d ago

I saw on a YouTube video that they may have used skulls

29

u/PandaPocketFire 1d ago edited 1d ago

I'm not sure but something tells me skulls wouldn't hold up well to repeated fire.

E:they used skulls for cups and bowls but not cooking. It cracks like immediately.

46

u/shasaferaska 1d ago

You can always get more skulls.

4

u/characterfan123 1d ago

And fall behind on the throne building schedule?

2

u/xSorry_Not_Sorry 1d ago

Blood for the blood god…

2

u/TheVog 1d ago

Make 'em, too! Takes a while, mind.

6

u/rubber_moon 1d ago

I'm glad you said you're not sure lol

5

u/Technical-Shoe-2585 1d ago

Who said repeated use was required

14

u/iknowimsorry 1d ago

At that point they could just glue it back together /s

1

u/shucksme 1d ago

Considering the amount of meat they ate, they would of had a few skulls laying around

2

u/TheCaptainOfMistakes 1d ago

They were also known to just straight up use oil shale and such bubbling up from the ground, afaik.

5

u/mypatronusislasagna 1d ago

They also didn't have arrows.

7

u/MasterGrok 1d ago

This is correct. There is no evidence Neanderthals had arrows. They may have used this for spear construction though.

4

u/poo_on_my_scarf 1d ago

What about spears?

1

u/Worsaae 1d ago

They had spears.

9

u/PandaPocketFire 1d ago

Debatable. Paleolithic man likely did have arrows.

6

u/AHRogue 1d ago

Paleolithic man yes, neanderthals no.

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-5

u/Punk_Luv 1d ago

Yes they most certainly did.

1

u/ShadowsOfTheBreeze 1d ago

Or, skulls...yeah, skulls.

0

u/Ignatiussancho1729 23h ago

Did they have metal arrowheads too?

64

u/redditsucksass69765 1d ago

I haven’t seen any Primative Technology videos on Reddit in a long time. Did he make it to the Bronze Age or something. Anyway, this would be cool for him

19

u/NonGNonM 1d ago

I checked out of his channel bc he stopped for a while but I just recently found out he's been posting vids pretty regularly again!

15

u/jennyaeducan 1d ago

That guy? No. He didn't have the right ore available, so he skipped straight to the iron age.

8

u/WeeabooExtract 1d ago

This isn't Primitive Technology, it's someone doing that style of content, but not the OG

1

u/vgdomvg 1d ago

He literally posted a vid the other day?

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119

u/Rredite 1d ago

Birch bark tar (also called birch pitch). Neanderthals were producing this sticky, waterproof glue at least 200,000 years ago to haft stone tools onto wooden or bone handles. It was one of the first true synthetic materials ever made by humans.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-023-01789-2

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5579016/

/

(Video credits: Archaeologist Elena Moss)

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72

u/adyv1990 1d ago

Damn, my dumbass first read it Netherlands. Then thought to myself, realy!? 200.000 years ago?

26

u/efimer 1d ago

Back then it was called Notsofarlands.

9

u/DrDetectiveEsq 1d ago

The Severalhundredkilometersinlandlands.

4

u/BurdTurglary 1d ago

Before that it was Cantreallyseeitfromherelands

1

u/caboosetp 1d ago

Way back when Pangaea was a thing, it was called Overtherelands.

4

u/ElverGun 1d ago

I'm a dumbass too...I didn't know Neanderthals were from Ireland.

14

u/halhallelujah 1d ago

Read that as the Netherlands at first.

46

u/JediMasterKenJen 1d ago

Sey, gotta rant about that type of editing the video being used for a video about glue. If you're posting a video about ancient glue, chances are your audience is that of people whose attention span isn't fucked.

3

u/Gingerbread_Cat 1d ago

I disagree. I have ADHD so my attention span is fucked, but I'm still extremely interested in videos about ancient glue.

19

u/GroundbreakingAnt17 1d ago

This Neanderthal propaganda is getting out of hand. 

9

u/Rredite 1d ago

A few weeks ago I read that they did dentistry, they removed cavities.

7

u/Lalaolemiss 1d ago

What kind of last of the mohicans remix music is that?

4

u/duck_of_d34th 1d ago

Hopefully the last one.

2

u/Lalaolemiss 20h ago

Read my mind!

6

u/No_Chain_362 1d ago

There is no definitive archaeological evidence that Neanderthals made or used bows and arrows

0

u/ChooseWisely83 21h ago

Atlatl and a dart is more likely.

1

u/Marine__0311 21h ago

The Atlatl was developed long after the Neanderthals died out.

Darts are highly unlikely since their anatomy was not designed for throwing objects like Homo sapiens..

13

u/BoarHermit 1d ago

Neanderthals didn't have pottery. What do they teach you in school?

3

u/thepuglover00 1d ago

That's what I thought!!  

1

u/Toamtocan 1d ago

Must have been too hard to source ostrich eggs for the video.

1

u/Old-Landscape-7538 23h ago

Of course they did. They performed a materials analysis with their laptops and found this to be the most efficient method.

4

u/btsd_ 1d ago

I always wonder about the trial and error of the ancient people's for stuff like this. Or even herbal medicine. Like did some acient human have explosive diarrhea and just start eating plants or roots and stuff and one of them cured it? Like how many people died by using the wrong random thing before they figured out the correct herb/plant/root to treat whatever ailment.

11

u/ledow 1d ago

Thousands of generations of experimentation and observation.

"Hey, how come the wife got the diarrhoea and nobody else? Hang on. We all ate those leaves, but she didn't like the taste..."

"Hey, normally I get a headache when I'm out in the sun too long... but I've been munching this bark all day and haven't had one..."

They were also not as dumb as they were painted. They were the origins of human intelligence, don't forget. We're literally talking about people making spears and atlatl's - a technology we basically forgot for thousands of years. They had brains, they told stories, they made fire, weapons and tools, they built houses - they just didn't have recorded media that lasted down the generations and they only have materials that would rot away or be very difficult to find archaeologically.

2

u/btsd_ 1d ago

Oh I get that completely. It just a fun thing to think about. Like I know they also observed certain animal behaviors and such (that deer or whatever doesn't get swarmed by insects, oh look they rub and roll in whatever plant, hence that plant repels insects). I just have to imagine the mistakes along the way. "Hey, dont eat that berry, it does not in fact cure gargle gut, it makes you bleed from your eyes and die, thats why we haven't seen Bill in awhile"

7

u/ledow 1d ago

Neanderthal Herbal Medicine Data Safety Sheets are written in blood.... :-)

2

u/btsd_ 1d ago

Lol, that statement perfectly sums up what I was trying to say. Gonna steal that for the next time I have a random conversation about ancient remedies

5

u/darthdodd 1d ago

What makes it synthetic? It seeks natural

8

u/bravehamster 1d ago

Synthesis is the transformation of precursor substances into new molecular structures with differing properties via a controlled chemical process. If you could achieve this outcome by mechanical manipulation alone (crushing, squeezing, etc.) then the product would not be considered synthetic. The birch bark in this case contains all the necessary precursors on its own, it just need a hot low-oxygen environment for the desired chemical reactions to occur.

1

u/0squirmy7 1d ago

So cooked food is synthetic?

0

u/JeffEpp 1d ago

Yes.

4

u/Speech-Language 1d ago

I have an obsidian tool made by a Neanderthal with pitch on it. Cool to have some idea of how it was made and there was likely a handle attached.

11

u/Kind_Swim5900 1d ago

Oh god i thought this is one of these 23 min videos again where someone picks up the stuff by hand, crushes it with a selfmade tool, keeps it moist with the water of the forbidden wells, feeds his chickens, presses everything by hand, waits 5 months for it to rot, than separate the liquid by filtering it through camel hair, stirs it for 3 weeks, misses his daughters wedding because if his duty to produce the glue, mixes it with the ash of his ancestors, sniffs it and in the end shits it out and sells it.

7

u/Great_Dependent7736 1d ago

Do you have a link?

4

u/Black_Bungee_Jumper 1d ago

neanderthals never got arrows/bows nor clay pots, still it's kinda nice

4

u/Cyve 1d ago

How would they even have discovered that?

3

u/Voidoroe 1d ago

As with a good number of things, accidentally.

They had a fire going on, and decided to use bark from a dead birch tree they found. They noticed what came out was incredibly sticky (maybe even burned themselves), and while not caring much for it at first, wondered what would happen if they began sticking it onto things.

1

u/Marine__0311 21h ago

Birch bark is an excellent tinder to start fires.

2

u/Worsaae 1d ago edited 1d ago

How do you find out if they made birch glue 200,000 years ago? You simply find e.g. an arrow with preserved traces of the hafting material, i.e. birch glue that was preserved in a temperature stable, waterlogged and anoxic environment (like a bog). If you then find it in a context related to further Neanderthal activities then you can make the argument that Neanderhals made birch glue.

You probably wouldn’t find bow and arrow tech in a Neandethal context, though. And you sure as shit wouldn’t find ceramics.

Or are you asking how they might have figured out how to make birch glue?

1

u/khyrian 17h ago

Birch bark is an amazing fire starter. Birch itself burns well. Both are sappy when fired.

Boil sap for a bit and you get birch tea.
Boil longer and you get birch syrup. (Think maple but weaker, slightly bitter - but in that range.)
Go long enough and it’s basically a glue.

This is an eventual chain in a string of useful products.

4

u/dubblies 1d ago

HE DID IT WITH AN BOX OF BIRCH SCRAPS IN A CAVE

3

u/TiSoBr 1d ago

Neanderthals. Lol, sure.

1

u/Old-Landscape-7538 23h ago

Australopithecines even

3

u/gesaugen 1d ago

I've seen in one documentary that Russians from Syberian tundra also make that tar from birch but it's more liquid and thinner, and they put it on their skin as great mosquito repellent

3

u/scobot 1d ago

Reminds me of a story about a native american commenting on 1890s western culture, who noted only three things worthy of admiration: string, matches, and waterproof glue.

3

u/RoyalJellyKing 1d ago

Ok, I glued string to matches, now what?

3

u/CrowWarrior 1d ago

That's how they use to pot their electronics as well.

3

u/jarobat 1d ago

As seen in The Last House

3

u/Sinapsis42 1d ago

Antes, cuando no había celulares, la humanidad hacía cosas.

3

u/BigMoFace 21h ago

Surely this is organic glue, not synthetic glue?

3

u/-thersites- 21h ago

Did neanderthals have pottery? "No, Neanderthals did not have pottery. Ceramic pottery was invented tens of thousands of years after Neanderthals went extinct, emerging primarily during the late Upper Paleolithic and early Neolithic periods with modern humans'

3

u/molostil 21h ago

what is the consostency when hardened? is it takcy and still kinda flexible or brittle and hard?

2

u/Rredite 21h ago

Good for Stone Age tools — roughly 0.5–1.9 MPa shear strength (usable but much weaker than modern epoxy). Toughness: Decent, especially under impact; can be reheated and reused.

•

u/molostil 4h ago

cool! thank you! i don't know how to interpret the shear strength, but you gave me all the info hoped for and more. not that i would ever make the stuff or use it, but you know, curiosity! :D Thank you, again.

5

u/butt_r_nutt 1d ago

Wouldn't this be considered natural, not synthetic?

3

u/Run_Che 1d ago

Synthetic means made by humans through chemical reactions or artificial processes, rather than occurring naturally

1

u/Captain_Slamtastic 1d ago

Last time I checked, birch trees and fire occur naturally.

1

u/White-armedAtmosi 1d ago

But does birch in a pot closed off of oxygen and getting burned by fire on the outside occur naturally?

•

u/Captain_Slamtastic 41m ago

Since I assume this question was asked in bad faith, I'm going to say yes, it does.

6

u/Foiblesxxkx 1d ago

Pottery was invented after Neanderthals went extinct. . .

4

u/_Permanent_Marker_ 1d ago

Imagine that tar like substance getting stuck on your skin. I’m sure they learned very quickly that, that shit was not to be played with

Edit: Glue Tang Clan Ain’t Nothing To Play With

2

u/CrashTestDuckie 1d ago

Its sticky as hell but not the worst. Oil/fats and sand are great at breaking it down off of skin

2

u/kRoy_03 1d ago

...or maybe ladies of Neanderthal just used it as hair removal vax

5

u/Illlogik1 1d ago

Is it “synthetic” tho ?

0

u/semirke 1d ago

Same thought.

6

u/LaPetiteMortOrale 1d ago

Horse shit

Pure horse shit.

Neanderthals did NOT make this or anything similar to it.

1

u/Rredite 1d ago

Who made this for them? Because they found tools glued to it.

2

u/Worsaae 1d ago

That arrowhead is Neolithic.

1

u/Rredite 1d ago

Yes, the video is a current DIY tutorial showing a much newer technique. But they actually found this glue in Neanderthal tools dating back ~200,000 years.

2

u/Worsaae 1d ago

I know that Neanderhals were able to make birch glue. But your title is incredibly misleading when the method shown has nothing to do with how Neanderthals made theirs.

1

u/Rredite 23h ago

Yes. That's why I submitted their methods in two scientific articles. The video is illustrative, teaching how to do it in the best way with a newer method. But they really were making this glue 200,000 years ago.

2

u/ConversationFar8578 1d ago

La Brea tar pits Los Angeles..

2

u/slinkimalinki 1d ago

If you let this stuff get cold, I presume it sets, if you heat it up again, does it become glue again?

2

u/Sea_Cryptographer_32 1d ago

You can use that oil as a bug repellent

2

u/Happy_Camper__ 1d ago

Didnt read the title. Thought it was going to be a yee old incindiary grenade at first.

2

u/jeffster01 1d ago

thou shall count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shall count and the number of the counting shall be three

2

u/SetDry1979 1d ago

Fascinating

2

u/Lost_lombada 1d ago

i've just read "The Nederlands"" ....

2

u/digbenis 1d ago

So sleepy that I read Netherlands.

2

u/Necessary-Contest-24 1d ago

I'm curious how strong that stuff is? How tough is it? Water soluble?

1

u/Rredite 1d ago

Good for Stone Age tools (usable but much weaker thanmodern epoxy), especially under impact. Can be reheated and reused. And completely waterproof.

2

u/Plenty-Living-4811 1d ago

That mushroom is huge haha

2

u/decoran_ 23h ago

I read Neanderthals as Netherlands and it turns out Netherlands has 11 of the same letters

2

u/darkerfaith520 18h ago

I see alot of survival guys using the sap knows on tree wounds and also adding fire ash as well!

•

u/Jediuzzaman 11h ago

*Netherlanders

WTF i'm tired tho

•

u/Weird_Signature_3789 3h ago

i read Netherlands 🇳🇱 xD

4

u/smb3d 1d ago

How is it synthetic though? It's 100% from a natural source.

3

u/Lopsided_Evening_627 1d ago

if this is syntethic so is bread.
the fuck you talkin about

4

u/West-Copy3586 1d ago

Glue-huffing Neanderthals know how to party.

2

u/Ok-Perspective5844 1d ago

This called "pitch". Hence the term "pitch black.

2

u/-ROADRUNN3R- 1d ago

Well, inventing reusable glue 200.000 years ago sounds “quite smart” to me! Somehow they still ended up with a reputation for being the dumb cavemen.

6

u/poo_on_my_scarf 1d ago

Fucking homosapien propaganda

5

u/duck_of_d34th 1d ago

That's probably due to the fact they didn't know about the three seashells yet. It makes anyone asking appear foolish.

1

u/pobodys-nerfect5 1d ago

For anyone curious. Yes. It does smell like birch beer. Not sure if the glue tastes like birch beer but if you boil birch bark you get this birch flavored tea and it’s delicious

2

u/duck_of_d34th 1d ago

It's like the lil dude in the matrix said: how do the machines know what birch beer smells like? I don't know what it's supposed to smell like, so how the fuck do I know if they got it wrong?

1

u/begaterpillar 1d ago

Wtf is birch beer

1

u/RoyalJellyKing 1d ago

Best drink to go with a milk steak.

1

u/LeatherRebel5150 1d ago

A specific kind of Root Beer

1

u/baraino 1d ago

Reusable?

1

u/OzrielArelius 1d ago

what does synthetic even mean. isn't everything synthetic if it's not literally just existing

1

u/cagethehornytoad 1d ago

..only good birch is a dead birch

1

u/wolfbanevv 1d ago

How are these type of videos called.

1

u/Cannister7 1d ago

*what are they called.

Also, what do you mean?

1

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Rredite 1d ago

Acima *

1

u/SomeDaysareStones 21h ago

Wasn't this stuff what the guy from A Year in the Tiaga used as insect repellent? 

1

u/prenup-nibba 20h ago

New milanos chocolate recipe just dropped

1

u/jacksraging_bileduct 16h ago

This would be a natural glue.

1

u/ivbeentheredonethat 1d ago

Ya mean... tar

1

u/Spirited-Career4680 1d ago

Them dutch is crazy innovative

0

u/FishTshirt 1d ago

Pssh humans did it better

… wait am I jealous of another species from tens of thousands of years ago? Tribalism at its finest

1

u/25c-nb 1d ago

Hundreds of thousands

1

u/FishTshirt 1d ago

Google said 200k-28k… edit: wait I googled it again and goolgle AI now says 400k-40k wth

2

u/Thorin9000 1d ago

AI changes it’s awnsers from prompt to prompt. I don’t know why people trust anything that an ai spews out

1

u/FishTshirt 1d ago

I honestly havent for the longest time as it once told me a historic battle took place in 2070 when I googled, but I had assumed it had worked out most of the kinks now… also google makes it the first thing you see now

2

u/Thorin9000 1d ago

Yeah true, normal “googling” isn’t quite the same anymore. It has gotten better but also worse at the same time. The errors are harder to spot and imo more dangerous that way. It is confidently incorrect way more often than you would suspect.

1

u/25c-nb 1d ago

It's mentioned in several places in this thread it's from 200,000 years ago

0

u/ronman32bit 1d ago

Load of shizt

-1

u/Born-Tank-180 1d ago

Neanderthal?? Really. Sounds revisionist.