Fire: mastered 800,000 years ago?

[I, Brian]

Human-like species migrating out of their African homeland had mastered the use of fire up to 790,000 years ago, the journal Science reports. The evidence, from northern Israel, suggests species such as Homo erectus may have been surprisingly sophisticated in their behaviour.

The find links earlier evidence of controlled fire from Africa with later discoveries in Eurasia, scientists say.

The researchers say that a wildfire is unlikely to be the cause.

Researchers from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan excavated a waterlogged site at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov.

In 34m-thick ground deposits, they found numerous flint implements belonging to the so-called Acheulean tradition of tool manufacture. Some of these were burnt, while other were not.


The team mapped the distribution of the burnt and unburned artefacts and compared them. Although there was some overlap with the unburned artefacts, the burnt ones clustered together at specific spots at the site.

The researchers think the clusters of burnt artefacts, which date to between 790,000 and 690,000 years ago, indicate the sites of ancient camp fires, or hearths, made by either Homo erectus or Homo ergaster.

It could have been a primitive form of Homo sapiens, they say, but other researchers consider this improbable.

"I believe fire was a very advantageous technology which empowered these humans," co-author Nira Alperson, of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, told BBC News Online.

Some researchers believe the control of fire enabled dramatic changes in human diet, the ability to defend social groups against wild animals and aided social interaction.



More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3670017.stm

[littlemissattitude]

This certainly seems to be another thread of evidence supporting the Out of Africa hypothesis, which seems to be accumulating validation at an ever-increasing rate. Just makes me wonder, though, what tack the multiregionalists will take - and they will - in explaining why it doesn't mean that at all. I'll be looking forward to that little exchange. (This is another one of those times when we need a little impish smilie.)

[Esioul]

I wonder if they used the burnt flint for cooking? Or whether they just chucked bits of meat on the fire and let it charr a bit?

I don't know whether I go for the multivariate approach or the out of Africa thingy... I suppse the processualists will have found lots of early evidence for fire elsewhere...

[I, Brian]

What I particularly like about the report is the fact that homo sapiens' inviolate superiority over all over species is challenged again. The notion that anything but homo sapiens is nothing more than a biological robot takes another kicking.

[littlemissattitude]

Originally Posted by I, Brian

What I particularly like about the report is the fact that homo sapiens' inviolate superiority over all over species is challenged again. The notion that anything but homo sapiens is nothing more than a biological robot takes another kicking.

Yeah, that is nice, isn't it? It's like the people who seem to imply, when they report that there is another bit of evidence that Neanderthals were a separate species, that it mostly means that the Neanderthals aren't really worth that much study because they aren't us. I think those people who feel that way are just way too invested in the "specialness" of H. sapiens.

[Patrick001]

I'm totally opposite. I'm surrounded by H. Sapiens. If I want to know more about them I just look out the window. Over all most of them are very boring.

Given the opportunity to meet a Neanderthal or winning a multi-million dollar lottery, I'd meet the Neanderthal without a second thought.

I wish though that there was a way discovering whether or not they made fire or if they just kept it going? I suspect they made it. Fire going out would be just to easy.

[carrie221]

I heard of this theory before in undergrad and I believe that it is possible