Stone Age Superglue Found

[Aurelia]

Hmmm, could this be true?

 

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.

 

Read more here

[Formosus Viriustus]

'The finding also suggests the intelligence of Stone Age humans was more akin to that of modern humans than previously thought, she added.'

 

Previously thought by whom ? Not by me. I never thought they were more stupid than modern humans. Hardly possible, is it ?

 

It's all in the wording, isn't it ? Typical NGC (and all the rest). They announce a Stone Age Superglue in big letters in the headline. But all it is is some pigment that might have made the glue those people used a bit more adhesive. Superglue ? It was, if even that, an accidental discovery of no importance whatsoever.

 

Yet they : ' ... were adept chemists ... They knowingly tweaked the chemical and physical properties of an iron-containing pigment.'

Yeah, right, yesterday you were a dumb monkey, today you are a scientific genius with a degree in advanced chemistry.

 

And that picture that goes with the article ? Is that a sugar cube in a bit of red goo at the end of a stick ? What are we supposed to learn from that ?

 

F rmosus

Edited May 23, 2009 by Formosus Viriustus

[caldrail]

I agree. The reporting of archaeology is often sensationalist. I think you have to accept that it always will be. the journalist is selling news and unless it interests the reader in some way the journalist ends up unemployed. Most readers aren't interested in history - it's viewed as a dull, boring subject (an attitude learned in school lessons given by indifferent teachers usually) - so the journalist looks for the sensationalist element.

 

Sometimes though you have to wonder if the journalist knows any more than the public he writes for. I guess all too often he doesn't. The prevalent view of prinmitive societies is that they're basically ignorant. Ok, they don't get a first class education, but the sophistication they show in manipulating even simple ideas and resources demonstrates that intelligence isn't lacking.

 

Some will point at the kago cults of the south pacific. Tribesmen, having witnessed the arrival of aeroplanes with cargo for soldiers serving in WW2, imagined these to be iron birds delivering goods from the gods. They then believed if they built bamboo radios they could summon these birds for themselves. In some respects it's a laughable (or pitiable) situation, but since the modern logistics system was beyond their experience, they attempted to make sense of it and exploit it. Naturally they failed and the kago cults evaporated over time. One suspects the other reason was the increasing pervasiveness of the modern world. Perhaps it also demonstrates that intelligence varies considerably between human beings, and that people with real incisveness are very rare - even in the modern west which contains a fair number of idiots and dunces who wouldn't read or understand history unless some big claim was made of it.

[Northern Neil]

even in the modern west which contains a fair number of idiots and dunces who wouldn't read or understand history unless some big claim was made of it.

...which is precisely why this article is thus framed, and no bad thing either, in my opinion. The prevalent view of 'Cavemen' in our society is sub-humans who club their wives into marrying them, and are a half-way stage between us and gorillas. This article will be an amazing revelation to a lot of people. It will inform them that people just like us lived as far back as 70 thousand years.

[Formosus Viriustus]

...which is precisely why this article is thus framed, and no bad thing either, in my opinion. The prevalent view of 'Cavemen' in our society is sub-humans who club their wives into marrying them, and are a half-way stage between us and gorillas. This article will be an amazing revelation to a lot of people. It will inform them that people just like us lived as far back as 70 thousand years.

 

Yes, and who created that image of the female-bashing caveman ? And now they want to give him the Nobel Prize for Chemistry ?

I'm sorry, it's all the media's fault. Only the media's. Didn't you know ?

 

And I'm still puzzled by that sugar cube ? Any explanation for that ? Was that a stone age invention too ?

Well, it's they who say they only used stone age materials and technologies.

 

F rmosus

 

[sylla]

Hmmm, could this be true?

 

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.

 

Read more here

The mere suggestion that seven hundred centuries ago there was something akin to empirical chemical design deliberately applied to tools' development is indeed fascinating by itself.

 

However, we should better still hold our horses; if I understood it rightly, a regular Paleolithic industry of tools made with the red-ochre/acacia-gum adhesive has not been identified yet; ie, the "superglue" may just have been a one-time lucky accident.

 

In any case, as other UNRV members I also find Mr. Wadley's commentary on Stone Age intelligence unnecessary; presumably much more time is required for any significant change on the biological basis of human cognition.

[Aurelia]

The mere suggestion that seven hundred centuries ago there was something akin to empirical chemical design deliberately applied to tools' development is indeed fascinating by itself.

 

However, we should better still hold our horses; if I understood it rightly, a regular Paleolithic industry of tools made with the red-ochre/acacia-gum adhesive has not been identified yet; ie, the "superglue" may just have been a one-time lucky accident.

 

In any case, as other UNRV members I also find Mr. Wadley's commentary on Stone Age intelligence unnecessary; presumably much more time is required for any significant change on the biological basis of human cognition.

 

I totally agree. The suggestion that pre-historic humans were producing superglue at will is a wild guess at best. The first thought that went through my mind was that this must surely have been an accident.

 

But I guess anything goes if what you want is for people to notice you.

[Viggen]

...hmm I read several articles in german on the Neanderthals that they most probably to usedand made their own glue, (University of Halle), and recently i found a video in english about it (second half),

 

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...ideoID=28868107

 

...so i would say, why not....