{"id":186930,"date":"2024-12-02T18:16:53","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T18:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/02\/neandertals-may-have-built-a-hearth-specifically-to-make-tar\/"},"modified":"2024-12-02T18:16:53","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T18:16:53","slug":"neandertals-may-have-built-a-hearth-specifically-to-make-tar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/02\/neandertals-may-have-built-a-hearth-specifically-to-make-tar\/","title":{"rendered":"Neandertals may have built a hearth specifically to make tar"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><\/div> \r\n<br><div data-component=\"video-embed\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n<p>Neandertals really knew their way around a fire. In a sea cave sheltered from the blustery winds of Gibraltar, our ancient cousins created a hearth capable of making tar from nearby plants, a new study suggests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Previous research has shown <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/fiery-re-creations-show-how-neandertals-could-have-easily-made-tar\">Neandertals used tar as an adhesive for crafting weapons<\/a>, and that they used fires for heat and cooking (<em>SN: 8\/31\/17<\/em>). Yet the new finding, reported November 12 in <em>Quaternary Science Reviews<\/em>, suggests <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0277379124005274?ref=cra_js_challenge&amp;fr=RR-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Neandertals designed specialized fire structures to make tar<\/a> itself.<\/p>\n\n\n<aside class=\"sn-conversion rich-text rich-text--with-sidebar\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n.email-conversion {\n  border: 1px solid #ffcccb;\n  color: white;\n  margin-top: 50px;\n  background-image: url(\"\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module@2x.jpg\");\n  padding: 20px;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"rich-text embedded-conversion-content is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n#dynamic-wrapper {\n  border: 1px solid #ffcccb;\n  background-image: url(\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/cta_background_aurora.jpg\");\n  background-size: cover;\n  background-position: center center;\n  padding: 20px;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n#dynamic-conversion {\n  padding: 20px;\n  background:rgba(0,0,0, 0.5);\n  color: white;\n}\n\n#dynamic-conversion h2 {\n  color: white;\n}\n\np.has-text-align-center a {\n  color: white !important;\n  text-decoration: none;\n  font-weight: bold;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"dynamic-wrapper\" class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div id=\"dynamic-conversion\" class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong>Have feedback for Science News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Help us improve by telling us about your experience<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/aside>\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe did not expect to find it,\u201d says Juan Ochando Tom\u00e1s, a botanist at the University of Murcia in Spain. But after collecting evidence from various scientific disciplines, the researchers were able to identify the structure as a hearth and realize it was indeed made by Neandertals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ochando Tom\u00e1s\u2019 team found a small pit in a layer of sand, clay and silt dating to around 65,000 years ago in a cave <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/stone-age-seafood-fans\">known to have been inhabited by Neandertals<\/a> (<em>SN: 9\/22\/08<\/em>). The researchers carried out a series of chemical and visual analyses on the contents of the pit and surrounding sediments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their results suggest the pit contained charcoal, pollen and chemical compounds that point to the burning of resinous plant material, along with yellow crystals they interpret as likely tar. The tar was seemingly made from the resin of gum rockrose (<em>Cistus ladanifer<\/em>), a plant that grows in nearby shrubland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on their findings, the researchers re-created the structure by filling a hole with rockroses, sealing it with sand and soil, and setting a fire on top to steam the plants. After several attempts, the team was able to make enough tar to make two spears from flint and olive wood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"caption wp-caption-3146706\">Researchers reconstructed this fire structure that\u2019s like one they suspect Neandertals used to make tar from gum rockroses (<em>Cistus ladanifer<\/em>). The team then used it to make their own tar.<\/span><span class=\"credit wp-credit-3146706\">Pedro Cura, Jo\u00e3o Belo and Carlos Neto de Carvalho<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The structure is an \u201coddball\u201d for this period, says archaeologist Andrew Sorensen, who was not involved with the study. Most Neandertal hearths were much simpler, he says, and the ancient hominids\u2019 use of fire appears to have been less frequent during this time period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Initially skeptical of the study\u2019s conclusions, Sorensen says he was won over by the analysis of the pit contents and the re-creation. The find indicates that Neandertals could have used one of the more complex and efficient methods for making tar, he says, and adds another possible adhesive to the short list of those they used to make tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy main curiosity now is whether they are able to find residues on stone tools at the site matching the physical and chemical signatures of rockrose tar,\u201d says Sorensen, of Leiden University in the Netherlands. \u201cI think this would do much to appease any remaining skeptics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n<br>\r\n<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/neandertals-hearth-used-to-make-tar\">Source link <\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Neandertals really knew their way around a fire. In a sea cave sheltered from the blustery winds of Gibraltar, our ancient cousins created a hearth capable of making tar from nearby plants, a new study suggests. Previous research has shown Neandertals used tar as an adhesive for crafting weapons, and that they used fires for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/112524_rk_neandertal-tar_inline.jpg?fit=680%2C510&ssl=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[13956,146284,106336,146285,122034],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186930"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186932,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186930\/revisions\/186932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}