COLOGNE, GERMANY—According to a statement released by the Public Library of Science, Neanderthals may have used birch-bark tar to treat their wounds. The hominins are known to have used the tar as an adhesive to assemble tools. Tjaark Siemssen of the University of Cologne and the University of Oxford and his colleagues noted that Indigenous communities in northern Europe and Canada use birch tar to treat wounds. The researchers extracted tar from living birch trees using methods that would have been available to Neanderthals, such as distillation of tar in a clay pit and condensation of tar against a stone surface. These tar samples, taken from species of trees that grow at Neanderthal sites, were then exposed to different strains of bacteria. All of the tar samples were found to be effective at hindering the growth of Staphylococcus bacteria, which causes infections in wounds. “The messiness of birch tar production deserves a special mention,” Siemssen said. “Every step of the production is a sensory experience in itself, and getting the tar off our hands after spending hours at the fire has been a challenge every time.” Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS One. To read about a later use of birch tar as adhesive for arrows, go to "Weapons of the Ancient World: Hunting Equipment."
