Hafting with beeswax in the final palaeolithic
- 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 Germanyhas,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.
| Author: | Michael BaalesORCiDGND, Susanne BirkerGND, Frank MuchaGND |
|---|---|
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:hbz:294-65952 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2017.142 |
| Parent Title (English): | Antiquity |
| Subtitle (English): | a barbed point from Bergkamen |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| Place of publication: | Cambridge |
| Document Type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Date of Publication (online): | 2019/09/19 |
| Date of first Publication: | 2017/09/20 |
| Publishing Institution: | Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsbibliothek |
| Tag: | Final Palaeolithic; Germany; barbed point; beeswax; hafting residues; honeybee |
| Volume: | 91 |
| Issue: | 359 |
| First Page: | 1155 |
| Last Page: | 1170 |
| Note: | © Copyright Cambridge University Press. Permission for reuse must be granted by Cambridge University Press in the first instance. |
| Institutes/Facilities: | Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften |
| open_access (DINI-Set): | open_access |
| faculties: | Fakultät für Geschichtswissenschaft |
| Licence (German): |  Nationale Lizenz |
