Humans’ ability to create fire marked a significant change in the evolutionary history of our species. The controlled use of this element was the key to our survival and expansion throughout the world, although until now this has proven difficult for researchers to determine. When and how the use of fire evolved by humans. New discovery now rewrites the timeline of the era the first time fire was createdafter discovering the first evidence of man-made fire in England 400,000 years ago.
A team of British archaeologists discovered on a site near Barnham (county of Suffolk, England) a pair of small rock fragments of only two centimeters which are part of the bonfires created 400,000 years ago.
“This is an astonishing discovery,” Simon Parfitt, who has been excavating the site for nearly two decades, said in a statement. These fragments show that it was a fire which It was not created by chance.but was lit and kept alive voluntarily.
As the researchers describe in the recently published article in Natureat said site, “heated sediments and fire-cracked flint axes were located, as well as two fragments of iron pyritea mineral later used to generate flint sparks.
“Since pyrite does not occur naturally in this landscape, its presence demonstrates that They had the ability to make fire at will. “It would have been an essential part of a fire-making tool set,” says Parfitt. In short, it would be the first lighter in known history.
As they explain, “the use of fire developed over a million yearsmoving from the natural collection of fire to the maintenance and finally the lighting of the fire.
The presence of pyrite in this site is an unequivocal sign of controlled use of fire. “This shows not only that they could keep the fire going, but also that they produced it“explains Dr. Silvia Bello, expert in ancient human behavior.
For this reason, the archaeologists indicate in their article Naturethe birth “of this technological capability has provided significant social and adaptive benefitsincluding the ability to cook food on demand (especially meat), thereby improving digestibility and energy availability, which could have been crucial for brain evolution hominids”, they conclude.
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