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.

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Metadaten
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):License LogoNationale Lizenz

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