Ancient superglue

Ask any craftsman who is familiar with older techniques, and you'll find that new isn't always better -- glues being just one example. Odd thing about this story is that such a good and widely-used recipe would have been lost. Or was it?

Roman warriors repaired their battle accessories with a superglue that is still sticking around after 2,000 years, according to new findings on display at the Rheinischen Landes Museum in Bonn, Germany.

Running until Feb. 16, 2008, the exhibition "Behind the Silver Mask" presents evidence that the ancient adhesive was used to mount silver laurel leaves on legionnaires' battle helmets.

And here's a chance for you intrepid basement experimenters:

"Analysis shows that the Roman glue was made of bitumen, bark pitch and animal grease," Willer said.

The finding confirms studies done by researchers at the University of Bradford and Liverpool, U.K., in the 1990s.

Analysis carried at that time on an ancient Roman jar showed that when Roman people broke their pots, they glued them back together with a compund "derived largely from birch bark."

So far, the German researchers have failed to recreate the Roman superglue.

From Discovery News. The British discovery was written up in New Scientist here.

Posted by David on December 18, 2007 6:22 PM