Editing Bitumen (section)

=== Paleolithic times ===
Bitumen use goes back to the [[Middle Paleolithic]], where it was shaped into tool handles or used as an adhesive for attaching stone tools to [[Hafting|hafts]].

The earliest evidence of bitumen use was discovered when archeologists identified bitumen material on [[Levallois technique|Levallois]] flint artefacts that date to about 71,000 years BP at the Umm el Tlel open-air site, located on the northern slope of the Qdeir Plateau in el Kowm Basin in Central Syria.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Boëda |first1=Éric |last2=Bonilauri |first2=Stéphanie |last3=Connan |first3=Jacques |last4=Jarvie |first4=Dan |last5=Mercier |first5=Norbert |last6=Tobey |first6=Mark |last7=Valladas |first7=Hélène |last8=Sakhel |first8=Heba al |date=2008 |title=New Evidence for Significant Use of Bitumen in Middle Palaeolithic Technical Systems at Umm el Tlel (Syria) around 70,000 BP |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41496524 |journal=Paléorient |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=67–83 |doi=10.3406/paleo.2008.5257 |jstor=41496524 |issn=0153-9345|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Microscopic analyses found bituminous residue on two-thirds of the stone artefacts, suggesting that bitumen was an important and frequently-used component of tool making for people in that region at that time. Geochemical analyses of the asphaltic residues places its source to localized natural bitumen outcroppings in the Bichri Massif, about 40 km northeast of the Umm el Tlel archeological site.

A re-examination of artifacts uncovered in 1908 at [[Le Moustier]] rock shelters in France has identified [[Mousterian]] stone tools that were attached to grips made of [[ochre]] and bitumen.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Schmidt |first1=Patrick |last2=Iovita |first2=Radu |last3=Charrié-Duhaut |first3=Armelle |last4=Möller |first4=Gunther |last5=Namen |first5=Abay |last6=Dutkiewicz |first6=Ewa |date=23 February 2024 |title=Ochre-based compound adhesives at the Mousterian type-site document complex cognition and high investment |journal=Science Advances |language=en |volume=10 |issue=8 |pages=eadl0822 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.adl0822 |pmid=38381827 |issn=2375-2548|pmc=10881035 |bibcode=2024SciA...10L.822S }}</ref> The grips were formulated with 55% ground [[goethite]] ochre and 45% cooked liquid bitumen to create a moldable putty that hardened into handles. Earlier, less-careful excavations at Le Moustier prevent conclusive identification of the [[archaeological culture]] and age, but the European Mousterian style of these tools suggests they are associated with [[Neanderthal]]s during the late [[Middle Paleolithic]] into the early [[Upper Paleolithic]] between 60,000 and 35,000 years before present. It is the earliest evidence of multicomponent adhesive in Europe.