Fire is one of the most important innovations in humanity ’s evolutionary story , but it ’s also one of the most occult . It leave behind almost no trace in the archaeologic record , and it ’s often unacceptable to determine when man began controlling fire .
As such , the range of dates for when humanity – or our evolutionary ancestors – first turned fervidness from a natural phenomenon to a pecker is ridiculously magnanimous , traverse anywhere from 1.7 million year ago to as recently as 400,000 . Both of these times long predate the emergence of Homo sapiens about 200,000 age ago , but they represent the extreme endpoint of the world of Homo erectus , the hominin mintage that most likely was the first to handle the flame .
That ’s why a new find in South Africa ’s Wonderwerk Cave is so crucial . A monumental cave on the edge of the Kalahari Desert , Wonderwerk was inhabit by hominins for hundred of K of year . A fresh excavate level dating back about one million years ago let out clear evidence of ashed plant and combust bones . These microscopic traces were found alongside those of gemstone tools , suggesting a link with the cave ’s hominin occupants .
What ’s more , the artifacts were found deep enough in the cave that the fire was almost certainly begin intentionally , rather than carried into the cave by wind or body of water . The surrounding surfaces from that time full stop also showed preindication of discolouration that are distinctive of frequent firing . All the grounds suggests the hominins that fill this cave a million years ago used fervidness .
Whether they had actually master it is another inquiry . The lead power shovel , Michael Chazan of the University of Toronto , think it ’s more potential that the Homo erectus of Wonderwerk simply happen upon wildfire and hold them inside the cave , making opportunist use of the attack rather than actively controlling it . Even so , Chazan job that these still basically inadvertent fire could have had a major impingement on the house physician of Wonderwerk and hominins in similar circumstances elsewhere :
“ The ascendency of flack would have been a major turning percentage point in human development . The impact of cooking food for thought is well documented , but the impact of ascendence over fervour would have meet all ingredient of human club . Socializing around a summer camp fire might actually be an substantive prospect of what make us human . ”
The confirmed use of fire at least a million years ago is a big hatful , but it ’s still a far yell from hypotheses that call for the use of blast as early as 1.9 million years ago . Favored by Harvard ’s Richard Wrangham , this idea holds that flack and cookery foods really helped reshape our evolutionary path by freeing up energy that could be used to substantiate liberal brains . While Wonderwerk pushes back the confirmed timeline , it does n’t exactly help the supposition , consider all the unexampled evidence argues for timeserving , casual use of fire , not the sort of thing likely to jump-start major physiological adaption .
PNASviaNew Scientist . prototype by Michael Chazan .
anthropologyCaveHuman evolutionPaleontologySciencesouth africa
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