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Hafting with beeswax in the Final Palaeolithic: a barbed point from Bergkamen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2017

Michael Baales ,
Susanne Birker  and
Frank Mucha
Michael Baales*
Affiliation:
LWL-Archäologie für Westfalen, Außenstelle Olpe, 57462 Olpe, Germany Institute for Pre- and Protohistory, Faculty of History, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44791 Bochum, Germany
Susanne Birker
Affiliation:
Gustav-Lübcke-Museum, Neue Bahnhofstraße 9, 59065 Hamm, Germany
Frank Mucha
Affiliation:
Natural Sciences Laboratory, Discipline of Conservation and Restoration, University of Applied Sciences, 99085 Erfurt, Germany
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), much of the familiar insect fauna of Northern Europe today was confined to the warmer areas south of the Alps. Chemical and microscopic analysis of hafting residues on a Final Palaeolithic barbed point from Westphalia in Germany has, for the first time, yielded evidence for the use of beeswax as a major component of adhesive during the later stages of the LGM. Analysis also confirmed that the beeswax was tempered with crushed charcoal. AMS dating of the Bergkamen barbed point suggests direct association with the Final Pleistocene Federmessergruppen, approximately 13000 years ago. Furthermore, the adhesive provides the first direct evidence of the honeybee, Apis mellifera, in Europe following the LGM.

Keywords

GermanyFinal Palaeolithicbarbed pointhafting residuesbeeswaxhoneybee
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 91 , Issue 359 , October 2017 , pp. 1155 - 1170
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2017 

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