'Caesar's Super Glue' still sticking around - 2,000 years later

Malaysia Sun (IANS) Tuesday 25th December, 2007

The ancient Romans developed a strong adhesive glue which is still holding helmets, shields and other battle gear together 2,000 years later, according to German archaeologists.

'Caesar's Super Glue', as it has been dubbed by the coworkers of the Rhine State Museum in Bonn, was found on a helmet at a site near Xanthen on the Rhine River where Romans settled before Christ.

'We found that the parade cavalry helmet had been repaired with an adhesive that was still doing its job,' said restorer Frank Willer.

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.

'It's a sensational find and a complete stroke of luck that we were still able to find traces of the substance after 2,000 years,' Willer was quoted as telling Discovery News Deutschland.

Willer found traces of the superglue while examining a helmet unearthed in 1986 near Xanten, on what was once the bed of the Rhine.

The helmet was among weapons and armour from the battle of the Teutoburger Forest in Germany in which three Roman legions were annihilated by Germanic tribes - forever ending the Roman Empire's plans of expansion east of the Rhine.

'The helmet, which dates from the first century BC, was given to the museum for restoration. I discovered the glue accidentally, while removing a tiny sample of metal from the helmet with a fine saw,' he said.

'The heat from the tool caused the silver laurel leaves on the helmet to peel off, leaving thread-like traces of the glue behind,' Willer said.

Willer was amazed to discover that despite such long exposure to water, time and air, the superglue did not lose its bonding properties.

'This is rightly called some kind of superglue because air, water and time have not diminished its bonding properties,' he said.

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

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

'We think that some inorganic material such as soot, sand and quartz, might have been added to make the mixture stickier,' Willer said.