A new study led by the British Museum shows that early Neanderthals mastered the technology of actively making fire about 400,000 years ago, which is about 350,000 years earlier than the earliest evidence of human "fire making" generally believed by the archaeological community in the past. The research team believes that this discovery means that long before the emergence of Homo sapiens, close relatives in the human lineage were able to "light fires" at any time when needed, instead of passively relying on natural fire sources such as lightning strikes.
The study focused on the site of an abandoned clay mine in Barnham, Suffolk, England. The local sediments recorded environmental conditions about 427,000 to 415,000 years ago. Archaeologists discovered a small "red deposit area" the size of a campfire at the site, surrounded by two pyrite fragments, 19 flint artifacts and 4 broken stone axes. These stone tools all showed obvious signs of high-temperature heating. Because pyrite is extremely rare locally, researchers concluded that these ores were most likely brought deliberately by early Neanderthals from other locations and used as "fire tools" by hitting flint to produce sparks.
In order to confirm whether this red sediment area is a natural wildfire relic or an artificial fire pond, the team conducted a number of microscopic and thermal analyzes on the sediments and stone tool surfaces in the laboratory. The results show that this small area has experienced high-temperature combustion many times, and the temperature of some sediment samples is estimated to exceed 750 degrees Celsius, which is comparable to the temperature reached by a typical campfire, pointing to repeated fire-making and fire-using activities, rather than a one-time natural fire.
Nick Ashton, a co-author of the paper and a researcher at the British Museum, pointed out that early humans evolved from "picking up fires" and "keeping fires" during natural events such as lightning strikes and forest fires to being able to actively create fire sources, which was a key turning point in the history of human evolution. He said that relying on natural fire is not only highly dependent on accidental factors such as weather, but also requires high costs and risks during long-term maintenance and migration. Learning to use pyrite and flint to create sparks means that fire can be lit whenever and wherever needed, thus promoting the daily use of fire.
Ashton emphasized that Neanderthals not only knew how to find pyrite, which is extremely rare in the local area, but also knew its "fire-making" properties, and could carefully select the "tinder" material suitable for igniting sparks. Research points out that some dry fungi may have been used as efficient tinder at that time. This series of behaviors demonstrated the high cognitive abilities of early Neanderthals in resource acquisition, material recognition and operational processes. In his opinion, this systematic mastery of material properties and procedures not only reflects a complex technological tradition, but may also exist on a larger scale among the European Neanderthal groups at that time.
Previously, the archaeological community generally believed that the earliest direct evidence of humans actively creating fire came from about 50,000 years ago, and the discovery at the Barnham site directly pushed this time forward by about 350,000 years. The research team therefore concluded that the ability to actively make fire evolved earlier than the emergence of Homo sapiens, and was likely to have matured and developed among Neanderthals, and may have appeared many times among different ancient humans in the form of cultural transmission or independent invention.
Studies believe that being able to make fire at any time not only brought obvious advantages to early humans such as cooking food, keeping warm, and defending against predators, but also greatly expanded their possibilities for settling in cold areas, nocturnal activities, and social interactions. The heated stone axes and flint artifacts around the fire pit also suggest that fire is likely to be closely connected with tool processing, camp activities and even collective life. It is one of the important driving forces that promotes technological progress and the complexity of social organization.
Relevant results have been published in the magazine "Nature" and were jointly completed by British museums and other institutions. The British Museum commented in the press release that this achievement provides the earliest direct evidence of "active fire creation" so far, and opens a new research perspective for re-understanding the technological capabilities and cognitive levels of Neanderthals, as well as the role of fire in the entire human evolution process.