Discover Birch Bark Wonders: From Glue to Clothes, Explore Its Thousand Uses!

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In the Ötztal Alps, on a summer day 5,300 years ago, a man in his forties crosses a pass at 3,000 meters above sea level. With his brown hair whipped by the wind and a determined hazel gaze, he struggles across a glacier. A nascent fire accompanies him: smoldering embers rest in a birch bark box, wrapped in maple leaves.

In his roe deer skin quiver, two arrowheads are securely attached to their shafts with birch tar. This ancient adhesive also strengthens his precious copper axe. A relic from the late Neolithic period, this tool signifies the dawn of a major technological and sociocultural shift in Europe: metallurgy. Suddenly, the man stops. A whistling sound cuts through the air. An assassin’s arrow fatally strikes his shoulder.

Five millennia later, in the same region on the current Austria-Italy border, two hikers stumble upon a corpse frozen in the ice. Unaware, they have discovered Europe’s oldest mummy, inadvertently launching the career of a future global sensation. Ötzi, as he would be named.

This archaeological marvel has been meticulously analyzed over the subsequent three decades. Among other things, it was discovered that he carried two pieces of a medicinal fungus associated with birches. Known for its healing and antiparasitic properties, it was particularly effective against the intestinal parasite that plagued Ötzi. The Ice Man is a testament to our age-old relationship with the white tree…

In the Swiss Jura’s Franches-Montagnes, on October 3, 2025, a man in his forties threads an elm fiber strap through a piece of birch bark using a bone awl. With his brown hair tied back and a determined hazel gaze, he crafts a cylindrical box. His movements are precise and swift.

Giovanni Foletti is an experimental archaeologist. He reconstructs various artifacts found in prehistoric digs, attempting to replicate ancient manufacturing techniques through experimentation and examination of remains. This nature enthusiast has crafted many boxes before, one of which, standing 20 cm tall and stitched with lime bast, is similar to Ötzi’s model.

« Since eyed needles are rare in the Neolithic, and Ötzi had a bone awl, I use this tool to pierce the bark, even though it takes five times longer », mutters the artisan seated cross-legged among a carpet of heather in autumn hues.

Working with this soft and brittle material requires delicacy and skill, as demonstrated by the hazel arch he inserts to prevent the stitching from splitting the work. The quality of the material also depends on the age and environment where the tree grew: the archaeologist primarily harvests Betula pendula, the most common type, but he highly praises varieties that grew in Northern Europe.

Why did our ancestors choose to work with birch bark ? « For its beauty, lightness, and because it’s strong and rot-resistant ! » summarizes the melodic voice of Lara Driscoll, Giovanni Foletti’s partner. Her mischievous eyes framed by chestnut curls, this potter is passionate about ancient ceramics. Archaeological findings reveal a pervasive use of birch bark among indigenous peoples of boreal regions.

Waterproof, it covered numerous shelters like the Sami huts and Native American teepees and wigwams. These groups even used it for their lightweight canoes suitable for rapids. Russian peoples fashioned clothing and footwear from it. The bark also lit up the night landscape as torches soaked in resin.

This paper-like material even preserved ancient sacred Sanskrit texts and millennia-old writings found in Russia — love letters, commercial deeds, reminders, and peace treaties. Furthermore, pebbles wrapped in bark were used as weights in fishing nets found with the pile dwellers by Lake Neuchâtel, and the büchel, a Swiss musical horn made of spruce encircled with birch skin.

Yet, a more surprising use exists. Lara rotates a jet-black pot decorated with an ivory zigzag pattern in her hands. « This design is mesmerizing with its very exotic look », exclaims Giovanni. Up close, the birch bark is unmistakable.

The ceramist has crafted a series of these Neolithic Swiss pottery pieces. The remnants, dating back to the first half of the 4th millennium BCE, were discovered in lakeside sites in Romandy and the Combe d’Ain (French Jura). Only peat bogs and lake sediments have preserved these plant materials.

Inspired by scholarly publications and digs, « I collected clay near a stream, mixing in a crystalline degreaser, crushed granite, and quartz to give the pieces a skeleton and make the pottery shock-resistant to thermal impacts. »

After shaping and drying, she performed a wood-fired cooking in an oxygen-deprived atmosphere for the black color, then cut the white bark with a flint scalpel. « The ancestor of paper cutting ? » Lara jokes in reference to .

The reenactors had to collaborate on the laborious task of gluing the decorations. Clearly, these delicate pottery pieces, which cannot be placed on a fire or withstand the dishwasher, served a special function. Festive dishes, wedding gifts, ritual objects ? Mystery.

Speaking of glue, how did our ancestors manage without extra-strong instant gel ? Demonstration ! In the center of the garden, the preheated hearth now accommodates a small clay pot topped with a large perforated lid. The couple of artisans stuff strips of birch bark into a clay jar crafted by Lara, turn it upside down, and wedge it on the lid, which acts as a funnel.

Around this giant egg, a nest of twigs is built. The next performer enters the scene: fire. « The temperature must rise slowly by gradually adding wood to avoid any thermal shock, followed by a final big blaze », Giovanni explains.

He throws white bark scraps into the fire, which instantly ignite, emitting acrid black smoke: « It’s very handy to have in your fire-starting kit, it even works when wet. » Thanks to its high content of highly flammable betulin, this material likely saved the lives of many prehistoric humans. The flickering flames begin to lick the pottery in which the magic happens. Before revealing the result, let’s take a short detour to a birch paradise.

« A little corner of Canada ! » Giovanni enthuses in front of the Hell’s Bog. Amid hundreds of young birches and heather bushes, a thick mattress of sphagnums embroidered with delicate cranberry stems surrounds a central pond, inviting introspection.

Why choose the path of experimental archaeology ? « It feels good, Giovanni states. These are important gestures, embedded in our manual animal genes. A large part of our brain is dedicated to our hands. »

Lara adds: « Knowing the resources of one’s environment and keeping one’s hands busy provides a deep sense of calm, autonomy, and therefore freedom. Imagining how our ancestors lived from miraculously preserved objects connects us to them. »

When asked about their relationship with nature, those who were wild children in their youth refer to . « This word, it’s what separates us from the rest, Giovanni clarifies. Every plant, stone, animal is a person with its own reality and way of expressing itself. Even though it doesn’t kill them, I prefer to harvest bark from dead birches, or I ask and give thanks. »

The young woman specifies: « We work with all kingdoms: plant, mineral, animal… It puts humans back in the circle of the living, not outside of it. » This animistic vision is also that of many root peoples who inspire them so much.

Back to the extinguished hearth. The experimenters lift the large jar. « Wow ! » In the still-smoking crucible, a pool of ink-black tar has formed: pitch. It’s easy to see why the birch — Betu in Gaulish — gave its name to bitumen, though the connection to our street asphalt remains purely semantic.

« It’s still mysterious, black extracted from white », muses Lara. More pragmatically, it’s pyrolysis: through the heat and absence of oxygen in the ceramic chamber, the light barks partially liquefied into aromatic tar. Giovanni picks up the pot of glue and adds an equal part of resin, which acts as a hardener.

Under a soothing sunbeam, accompanied by the gentle song of bullfinches, he applies the viscous mass with a stick to a flint arrowhead he has tied to a wooden shaft. In addition to fitting tools, this tar also served to repair broken pottery.

For the two artisans, this mixture has « the smell of Prehistory ». In 2023, research showed that the manufacture of birch tar began with Neanderthals 200,000 years ago… long before Ötzi.

Some archaeologists argue that this material — reportedly as adhesive as modern two-component glues — is the oldest synthetic substance ever made by a hominid. A process that requires advanced cognitive abilities, previously thought to be exclusive to Sapiens…

La Salamandre, .

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