< home # store # services # articles # game # app #contact >

Many thousands of years ago, humans encountered bitumen naturally seeping from the ground
Rather than “discovering” it through digging. Or, like drilling in modern times.

Bitumens use comes early. 200 thousand years ago: At Campitello Quarry
Neanderthals used bitumen. They mixed it with plant fibers to attach stone tools, to handles.

The Natufian culture, (from around 15 to 11.5 thousand years ago, in the middle east), used bitumen extensively
Including hafting tools (attaching stone blades to wooden handles); waterproofing baskets; repairing pottery; and as a, decorative coating

It became important during the neolithic era for building, and watercraft too
It was used for mortar between bricks, and waterpoofing walls; boats (reeds could be coated with it); and as adhesives used to glue stone tools, arrowheads, spearpoints, and decorative items.

In Egypt they used it for mummification mixtures.

Typical locations were oil seeps, tar pits, river banks, and lake margins

Early humans could: scrape it from the surface, heat it to soften it, mix it with fibers or minerals to strengthen adhesives
Heating made bitumen more workable.

Bitumen deposits occur in: Iraq, the Euphrates River and Tigris River(s); southeast Turkey; Iran; the Dead Sea region; In the western hemisphere: La Brea; Peru; Canada (Athabasca oil sands); Even Europe, Puy de la Poix; and, Montegibbio; and, China’s Tarim basin

Some archaeologists suspect Clovis groups used adhesivs such as: pine pitch, plant resins, and reusing asphalt where available
It enabled: composite tools, watertight homes and boats. And, improved hunting weapons with a durable construction material

During the neolithic bitumen became a strategic resource in ancient trade networks
Check it out today.

Bibliography: Carter, E. (2003). Trade and exchange in the ancient Near East. In S. Richard (Ed.), Near Eastern Archaeology: A Reader (pp. 360-366). University Park, PA: Penn State University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781575065472-052

Connan, Jacques. (1999). Use and trade of bitumen in antiquity and prehistory: Molecular archaeology reveals secrets of past civilizations. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 354. 10.1098/rstb.1999.0358.

Villa et al. (2015). Neanderthal adhesives and bitumen technology

Brown, Kaitlin & Connan, Jacques & Poister, Nicholas & Vellanoweth, René & Zumberge, John & Engel, Michael. (2016). SourcingArchaeologicalBitumen JAS

American Journal of Archaeology – studies of ancient asphalt use