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LiveScience
LiveScience
Kiona Smith

65,000-year-old hearth in Gibraltar may have been a Neanderthal 'glue factory,' study finds

A Neanderthal man crouches around a fire.

Archaeologists in the Iberian Peninsula have discovered a 65,000-year-old tar-making "factory" engineered by Neanderthals — a feat pulled off 20,000 years before modern humans (Homo sapiens) set foot in the region, a new study finds.

The sticky tar helped Neanderthals produce glue to make weapons and tools. The so-called factory — a carefully designed hearth — enabled the Neanderthals to precisely control the fire and manage the temperature of the flame that produced their gooey creations.

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