Before screws were used as fasteners, there were many different methods of fastening, such as wood wedging, woodworking joinery, nails and glues. Till today, most of these fasteners still exist. However, the screw remains distinctly useful (see World Change for more)

In 200,000 BC the first natural glue was birch-bark-tar and was used to glue spears to wood. Compound glue existed since 70,000 BC and primarily join thin materials. It remains a liquid or semi-liquid that bonds items together.

Since 2000 BC, craftsmen in China and Egypt used this to connect wood together. Purely using woodcraft techniques, woodworking joinery connects wood purely using the two involved wood planks through jigsaw or stick-in-hole structures.