In the Middle Stone Age, early Homo sapiens in South Africa used glue made from local Podocarpus trees to attach stone tools to wooden spears.
Yellowwoods, conifers of the genus Podocarpus, are tropical evergreen shrubs and trees. “Adhesives have been discovered at several Middle Stone Age sites in South Africa, mostly as residues on scrapers or stone blades that had been glued to handles or spears,” says Professor Edmund February from UCT’s Department of Biological Sciences.
The team discovered two ways to manufacture the glue: “It’s quite simple to burn the leaves directly next to flat stones. This leads to the condensation of tar, which can be scraped off the stones. This is a process that people may have discovered by accident,” he says.
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