Use of Fire Now One-Million Years Ago --"Major Inflection Point in Human History"

 

          

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 at the Wonderwerk Cave --a massive cave in the Kuruman Hills of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. 

"The control of fire would have been a major turning point in human evolution," says anthropologist Michael Chazan, co-director of the project and director of University of Toronto's Archaeology Center. "The impact of cooking food is well documented, but the impact of control over fire would have touched all elements of human society. Socializing around a camp fire might actually be an essential aspect of what makes us human."  

"The analysis pushes the timing for the human use of fire back by 300,000 years, suggesting that human ancestors as early as Homo erectus may have begun using fire as part of their way of life," said Chazan.

 

                         

Wonderwerk is a massive cave located near the edge of the Kalahari where earlier excavations by Peter Beaumont of the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa, had uncovered an extensive record of human occupation. Analysis of sediment by lead authors Francesco Berna and Paul Goldberg of Boston University revealed ashed plant remains and burned bone fragments, both which appear to have been burned locally rather than carried into the cave by wind or water. The researchers also found extensive evidence of surface discoloration that is typical of burning.

More information: “Microstratigraphic evidence of in situ fire in the Acheulean strata of Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape Province, South Africa,” by Francesco Berna et al. PNAS (2012).

The Daily Galaxy via University of Toronto

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Comments

[Bob Greenwade]

And the time frame for just about everything just keeps getting shifted around. Last year there were dozens of stories giving as many different new numbers for the age of the universe; earlier this week, another one came about showing that the Earth is somewhat younger than previously thought; and now this.

This just underscores a huge truth, and it is this: we just don't really know. We can make educated guesses based on various data we have on hand, but that data could, and often is, quite wrong.

And yet too many people in our society will continue to hold on to the "accepted" numbers because they feel comfortable and allow them to hold on to their view of the universe.

What's actually becoming more and more evident is that space and time are much, much more malleable and nebulous than most people, especially scientists, have yet been willing to consider.

As Someone Famous once said: "It's a wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey sort of thing."

[Greg]

It makes sense that the point at which fire was first used would be close to the point at which stone tools were being used. You start bashing rocks together trying to make tools.. experimenting with different rocks as to which ones are easier to form..that would come across flint eventually.. whao..what was that? shiny! lets do that again! ouch! thats hot!

[Gaugain]

i bought a dvd movie last week, it`s new enough, french, called "the warr for fire", about the secret of building a fire , dated 20.000 years ago...up to a million it`s a little difference...

[Velocity_Wave]

Happy 1 Million Years Anniversary to Fire and Cooking!

[Matt Rhodes]

I can't wait for Prometheus this summer.

[Martin J Sallberg]

If fire control was invented 1 million years ago, it shows that it was less of an evolutionary breakthrough than previously thought. It pushes fire control back way before the paleoanthropological changes 600000-800000 years ago, but absolutely not far back enough for the changes about 2 million years ago.

Interestingly, this agrees with studies of Homo erectus tooth rooting, which contradicts the cooking model of human evolution.