Hominids lit fires much earlier than previously thought

BarcelonaIf Jean-Jacques Annaud were filming now In search of fireThe story of a group of Neanderthals desperately searching for fire, which they knew how to maintain but not create, should rewrite the script. A team of researchers led by the British Museum has found evidence in Barnham (UK) that hominins were already capable of making fires more than 400,000 years ago. They did so repeatedly and in a controlled manner during the Lower Paleolithic, long before the appearance of humans. Homo sapiensUntil now, the oldest evidence of the ability to control fire dated back some 50,000 years and had been found in northern France. The research has been published in an article in Nature.

It's not easy to determine whether a fire was caused accidentally or deliberately because the traces of natural fires can leave marks similar to those made by humans. Scientists used advanced pyroarchaeological tools, such as archaeomagnetism, which allows them to determine the temperature and time when sediments were exposed to heat. They also applied micromorphology, which studies the organic compounds produced by combustion, and spectroscopy to confirm that the fire had been controlled. The combination of techniques revealed that the sediments at the site had been subjected to temperatures of up to 750 °C and that these were repeated fires, not an isolated incident. Another key discovery was the presence of iron pyrite, a mineral capable of generating sparks, which is not common in that area of ​​Sussex, in southeast England. The study indicates that hominins brought it specifically to start fires and, therefore, knew and controlled its use. Burned and heat-cracked stones were also found.

This isn't the first evidence of campfires. There are indications in Africa dating back more than a million years and in Europe around 500,000 years, but these could have been of natural origin, and there's no proof that they were controlled in those cases. Controlled fire brought about major changes and an evolutionary leap for Pleistocene hominins: it provided warmth, protection from predators, allowed for cooking, and created illuminated spaces that served as meeting points and areas for social interaction.

The emergence of this technological capability brought social and adaptive benefits: it allowed for cooking food on demand—especially meat—and improved digestion and energy availability, factors possibly key to the evolution of the human brain. It fostered the development of new technologies, such as the manufacture of adhesives for attaching tools, but also greater social complexity. Around the campfire, the ancestors of Neanderthals and cuttlefish may have shared many things.