Ancient people in what is now South Africa whipped up a glue of powdered red ochre and acacia-tree gum to keep their tools (above, a replicated tool with adhesive made by scientists) intact, a May 2009 study says. The ancient people's understanding of chemistry may have required more smarts than we give our ancestors credit for, researchers added. Photograph courtesy Lyn WadleyFrom The National Geographic:
Stone Age humans were adept chemists who whipped up a sophisticated kind of natural glue, a new study says.
They knowingly tweaked the chemical and physical properties of an iron-containing pigment known as red ochre with the gum of acacia trees to create adhesives for their shafted tools.
Archaeologists had believed the blood-red pigment—used by people in what is now South Africa about 70,000 years ago—served a decorative or symbolic purpose.
But the scientists had also suspected that the pigment may have been purposely added to improve glue that held the peoples' tools together.
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