Evidence discovered in a field in Suffolk, England, indicates that ancient people intentionally harnessed fire more than 350,000 years earlier than previously thought. According to a British Museum study published December 10 in the journal Natureour paleolithic Neanderthal ancestors used technologies such as hearths and fires as early as 400,000 years ago.
“The implications are huge,” said British Museum project curator and study co-author Rob Davies. says the statement. “The ability to create and control fire is one of the most important turning points in human history, with practical and social benefits that changed human evolution.”
The Evolution of the Intentional Use of Fire
Early hominins Fire was first used more than a million years ago, but the use was sporadic and dependent on the environment. Without knowing how to create sparks using flint and stone materials, our ancestors likely relied on wildfires and other small flames created by natural phenomena such as lightning strikes. This has made it difficult to find evidence of early fires and determine when ancient humans made the transition from opportunistic to deliberate owners of fire.
“Archaeological evidence for the early use of fire is limited and often ambiguous, usually consisting of associations between heated materials and stone tools,” the study authors wrote.
However, understanding when and where this transition first occurred around the world is vital to understanding the larger picture of human evolution. Creating fire at will would have required social coordination and a more complex division of labor within hominid societies. Constant warmth would improve survival rates and also allow for stronger, more resilient tools. Meanwhile, cooked food is easier to digest and more nutritious, releasing important calories from the gut that feed the brain. Simply put, the first humans to embrace fire flourished while their evolutionary competitors faded into the background.
In 2018 paleoanthropologists presented the first evidence deliberate fire-making by Neanderthals some 40,000 years ago, discovered in northern France. But after decades of periodic excavations at the site known as the Barnham site in southern England, British Museum researchers say they are confident the timeline could be pushed back significantly. many further.
Potential of iron pyrite
The team behind this new study used geochemical analysis to confirm that the heated clay residue at the site was not the result of wildfires. Instead, the artifacts were created after exposure to temperatures above 1,292 degrees Fahrenheit (700 degrees Celsius) through repeated use of fire in the same location. This suggests that local ancient people repeatedly worked around a fire or hearth to make flint axes.
Additional evidence is iron pyrite found at the site. The natural mineral creates sparks when struck against flint, forming tinder. However, iron pyrite is not common in southern England. The team believes that local hominids who realized the usefulness of pyrite mined it elsewhere before bringing it to the Barnham site.
Although archaeologists have not found hominid remains at Barnham, researchers believe the inhabitants were likely early Neanderthals, based on the morphology of similarly aged fossils taken from Swanscombe in Kent (about 100 miles south of the Barnham site) and the Atapuerca site in northern Spain.
“It is incredible that some of the earliest groups of Neanderthals knew about the properties of flint, pyrite and tinder at such an early date,” said Nick Ashton, curator of Paleolithic collections at the British Museum and co-author of the study. “This is the most remarkable discovery of my career, and I am very proud of the teamwork it took to achieve this revolutionary finding.”
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