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Control of fire by early humans

"Control of fire" redirects here. For the process of suppressing or extinguishing a fire, see Fire control. For components that assist weapon systems, see Fire-control system.
Not to be confused with Controlled burn.

The control of fire by early humans was a critical technology enabling the evolution of humans. Fire provided a source of warmth and lighting, protection from predators (especially at night), a way to create more advanced hunting tools, and a method for cooking food. These cultural advances allowed human geographic dispersal, cultural innovations, and changes to diet and behavior. Additionally, creating fire allowed human activity to continue into the dark and colder hours of the evening.

Claims for the earliest definitive evidence of control of fire by a member of Homo range from 1.7 to 2.0 million years ago (Mya).[1] Evidence for the "microscopic traces of wood ash" as controlled use of fire by Homo erectus, beginning roughly 1 million years ago, has wide scholarly support.[2][3] Some of the earliest known traces of controlled fire were found at the Daughters of Jacob Bridge, Israel, and dated to ~790,000 years ago.[4][5] At the site, archaeologists also found the oldest likely evidence of controlled use of fire to cook food ~780,000 years ago.[6][7] However, some studies suggest cooking started ~1.8 million years ago.[8][9][clarification needed]

Flint blades burned in fires roughly 300,000 years ago were found near fossils of early but not entirely modern Homo sapiens in Morocco.[10] Fire was used regularly and systematically by early modern humans to heat treat silcrete stone to increase its flake-ability for the purpose of toolmaking approximately 164,000 years ago at the South African site of Pinnacle Point.[11] Evidence of widespread control of fire by anatomically modern humans dates to approximately 125,000 years ago.[12]

  1. ^ James, Steven R. (February 1989). "Hominid Use of Fire in the Lower and Middle Pleistocene: A Review of the Evidence" (PDF). Current Anthropology. 30 (1): 1–26. doi:10.1086/203705. S2CID 146473957. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 December 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
  2. ^ Luke, Kim. "Evidence That Human Ancestors Used Fire One Million Years Ago". Retrieved 27 October 2013. An international team led by the University of Toronto and Hebrew University has identified the earliest known evidence of the use of fire by human ancestors. Microscopic traces of wood ash, alongside animal bones and stone tools, were found in a layer dated to one million years ago
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Goren-Inbar, Naama; Alperson, Nira; Kislev, Mordechai E.; Simchoni, Orit; Melamed, Yoel; Ben-Nun, Adi; Werker, Ella (30 April 2004). "Evidence of Hominin Control of Fire at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel". Science. 304 (5671): 725–727. Bibcode:2004Sci...304..725G. doi:10.1126/science.1095443. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 15118160. S2CID 8444444.
  5. ^ Renfrew, Colin; Bahn, Paul (2012). Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice (6th ed.). Thames & Hudson. p. 254. ISBN 978-0-500-28976-1.
  6. ^ "Ancient human relative used fire, surprising discoveries suggest". Washington Post. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
  7. ^ Zohar, Irit; Alperson-Afil, Nira; Goren-Inbar, Naama; Prévost, Marion; Tütken, Thomas; Sisma-Ventura, Guy; Hershkovitz, Israel; Najorka, Jens (December 2022). "Evidence for the cooking of fish 780,000 years ago at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 6 (12): 2016–2028. Bibcode:2022NatEE...6.2016Z. doi:10.1038/s41559-022-01910-z. ISSN 2397-334X. PMID 36376603. S2CID 253522354.
  8. ^ Organ, Chris (22 August 2011). "Phylogenetic rate shifts in feeding time during the evolution of Homo". PNAS. 108 (35): 14555–14559. Bibcode:2011PNAS..10814555O. doi:10.1073/pnas.1107806108. PMC 3167533. PMID 21873223.
  9. ^ Bentsen, Silje (27 October 2020). "Fire Use". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.52. ISBN 978-0-19-085458-4.
  10. ^ Zimmer, Carl (7 June 2017). "Oldest Fossils of Homo Sapiens Found in Morocco, Altering History of Our Species". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  11. ^ Brown, Kyle S.; Marean, Curtis W.; Herries, Andy I.R.; Jacobs, Zenobia; Tribolo, Chantal; Braun, David; Roberts, David L.; Meyer, Michael C.; Bernatchez, J. (14 August 2009), "Fire as an Engineering Tool of Early Modern Humans", Science, 325 (5942): 859–862, Bibcode:2009Sci...325..859B, doi:10.1126/science.1175028, hdl:11422/11102, PMID 19679810, S2CID 43916405
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference beyondveg was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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