尼安德特人可能用抗生素粘性焦油治疗伤口

TAR made from birch tree bark is commonly found at Neanderthal sites. Now, experiments have shown that it has antibiotic properties, regardless of how it is made, hinting that Neanderthals could have discovered its medicinal uses. “Birch tar as a substance has been known for quite a while from the late Pleistocene, specifically from Neanderthal sites across Europe,” says Tjaark Siemssen at the University of Oxford. “It’s pretty clear that it’s been used as an adhesive”, says Siemssen, for instance, to attach sharpened stone heads onto wooden spears. However, he says that may not have been its only use. In some Indigenous communities in recent centuries, birch tar has been applied as a medicinal ointment. …