![Silver birch forest in Gullmarsskogen National Park in Sweden. The trees contain the raw material for the Stone Age equivalent of superglue.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/birkenpech-titel-300x225.jpg)
Stone Age superglue
Birch bark pitch is the oldest all-purpose adhesive in history. Ötzi used birch pitch to affix his arrowheads to the shafts of the arrows; other prehistoric peoples glued broken pottery with birch pitch, or sealed canoes with it. Recently, science has also solved the mystery of how it was produced.
TV documentary about Ötzi. YouTube
![One of Ötzi’s arrowheads (front and rear faces), which was affixed to the arrow shaft with birch pitch.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/pfeile-229x300.jpg)
![Reconstruction of Stone Age hunter Ötzi, with his weapons and axe.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/oetzi-191x300.jpg)
![Pieces of birch pitch bearing tooth marks from the Hornstaad lake dwelling settlement on Lake Constance.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/birkenpechstucke-300x196.jpg)
![Modern experimental attempt to produce birch pitch in a single-pot process: the birch bark is carbonised in a vessel under airtight conditions.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/experiment-218x300.jpg)
![Birch pitch obtained in the single-pot process: the end product consists of tar and the ashes of the bark.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/grundstoff-birkenpech-300x213.jpg)
![Lump of birch pitch from Syltholm on Lolland, Denmark, with tooth marks of a Stone Age female.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/birkenpech-stuck-300x188.jpg)