Control of fire by early humans - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The control of fire by early humans was a turning point in the cultural aspect

Sociocultural evolution

Sociocultural evolution is an umbrella term for theories of cultural evolution and social evolution, describing how cultures and societies have changed over time...

of human evolution

Human evolution

Human evolution refers to the evolutionary history of the genus Homo, including the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species and as a unique category of hominids and mammals...

that allowed humans to cook

Cooking

Cooking is the process of preparing food by use of heat. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely across the world, reflecting unique environmental, economic, and cultural traditions. Cooks themselves also vary widely in skill and training...

food and obtain warmth and protection. Making fire

Making fire

Fire was an essential tool in early human cultural development and still important today. Many different techniques for making fire exist...

also allowed the expansion of human activity into the colder hours of the night, and provided protection from predators and insects.

Incontrovertible evidence of widespread control of fire dates to approximately 125,000 years ago and later. Evidence for the controlled use of fire by Homo erectus
Homo erectus
Homo erectus is an extinct species of hominid that lived from the end of the Pliocene epoch to the later Pleistocene, about . The species originated in Africa and spread as far as India, China and Java. There is still disagreement on the subject of the classification, ancestry, and progeny of H...

beginning some 400,000 years ago has wide scholarly support, while claims regarding earlier evidence are mostly dismissed as inconclusive or sketchy.

Claims for the earliest definitive evidence of control of fire by a member of Homo
Homo
Homo may refer to:*the Greek prefix ὅμο-, meaning "the same"*the Latin for man, human being*Homo, the taxonomical genus including modern humans...

range from 0.2 to 1.7 million years ago (Mya).

Lower Paleolithic evidence

All evidence of control of fire during the Lower Paleolithic

Lower Paleolithic

The Lower Paleolithic is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 2.5 million years ago when the first evidence of craft and use of stone tools by hominids appears in the current archaeological record, until around 300,000 years ago, spanning the...

is uncertain and has at best limited scholarly support. In fact, definitive evidence of controlled use of fire is one of the factors characteristic of the transition from the Lower to the Middle Paleolithic

Middle Paleolithic

The Middle Paleolithic is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleolithic in African archeology. The Middle Paleolithic and the Middle Stone Age...

in the period of 400,000 to 200,000 BP

Before Present

Before Present years is a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use AD 1950 as the origin of the age scale, reflecting the fact that radiocarbon...

.

East Africa

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...

n sites, such as Chesowanja near Lake Baringo

Lake Baringo

Lake Baringo is, after Lake Turkana, the most northern of the Great Rift Valley lakes of Kenya, with a surface area of about and an elevation of about . The lake is fed by several rivers, El Molo, Perkerra and Ol Arabel, and has no obvious outlet; the waters are assumed to seep through lake...

, Koobi Fora

Koobi Fora

Koobi Fora refers primarily to a region around Koobi Fora Ridge, located on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana in the territory of the nomadic Gabbra people. According to the National Museums of Kenya, the name comes from the Gabbra language:...

, and Olorgesailie

Olorgesailie

Olorgesailie is a geological formation in East Africa containing a group of Lower Paleolithic archaeological sites. It is on the floor of the Eastern Rift Valley in southern Kenya, southwest of Nairobi along the road to Lake Magadi. Olorgesailie is noted for the large number of Acheulean hand...

in Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

, show some possible evidence that fire was utilized by early humans. At Chesowanja, archaeologists found red clay sherd

Sherd

In archaeology, a sherd is commonly a historic or prehistoric fragment of pottery, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments of stone and glass vessels as well....

s dated to be 1.42 Mya. Reheating on these sherds show that the clay must have been heated to 400 °C (752 °F) to harden. At Koobi Fora, sites FxJjzoE and FxJj50 show evidence of control of fire by Homo erectus
Homo erectus
Homo erectus is an extinct species of hominid that lived from the end of the Pliocene epoch to the later Pleistocene, about . The species originated in Africa and spread as far as India, China and Java. There is still disagreement on the subject of the classification, ancestry, and progeny of H...

at 1.5 Mya, with the reddening of sediment that can only come from heating at 200–400 °C (392–752 F). A "hearth-like depression" exists at a site in Olorgesailie, Kenya. Some microscopic charcoal

Charcoal

Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...

was found, but it could have resulted from a natural brush fire. In Gadeb, Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

, fragments of welded tuff that appeared to have been burned were found in Locality 8E, but re-firing of the rocks may have occurred due to local volcanic activity. These have been found amongst H. erectus created Acheulean

Acheulean

Acheulean is the name given to an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture associated with early humans during the Lower Palaeolithic era across Africa and much of West Asia, South Asia and Europe. Acheulean tools are typically found with Homo erectus remains...

artifacts. In the Middle Awash

Middle Awash

The Middle Awash is an archaeological site along the Awash River in Ethiopia's Afar Depression. A number of Pleistocene and late Miocene hominid remains have been found at the site, along with some of the oldest known Olduwan stone artifacts and patches of fire-baked clay, disputed evidence of the...

River Valley, cone-shaped depressions of reddish clay were found that could have been created by temperatures of 200 °C (392 °F). These features are thought to be burned tree stumps such that they would have fire away from their habitation site. Burnt stones are also found in the Awash Valley, but volcanic welded tuff is also found in the area.

A site at Bnot Ya'akov Bridge

Bnot Ya'akov Bridge

Bnot Ya'akov Bridge is a bridge across the Jordan River on Highway 91, straddling the border between Israel proper and the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights...

, Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, has been claimed to show that H. erectus or H. ergaster
Homo ergaster
Homo ergaster is an extinct chronospecies of Homo that lived in eastern and southern Africa during the early Pleistocene, about 2.5–1.7 million years ago.There is still disagreement on the subject of the classification, ancestry, and progeny of H...

made fires between 790,000 and 690,000 BP.

In Xihoudu

Xihoudu

Xihoudu is an archological site located in the Shanxi Province of China. The site dates to the Paleolithic Age. In total 32 stone implements were found at the site....

in Shanxi Province, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, there is evidence of burning by the black, gray, and grayish-green discoloration of mammalian bones found at the site. Another site in China is Yuanmou in Yunnan Province, where blackened mammal bones were found in 1985 and dated to 1.7 Ma BP.

At Trinil

Trinil

Trinil is a palaeoanthropological site on the banks of the Bengawan Solo River in Ngawi Regency, East Java Province, Indonesia. It was at this site in 1891 that the Dutch anatomist Eugène Dubois discovered the first early hominid remains to be found outside of Europe: the famous "Java Man" specimen....

, Java

Java

Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...

, similar blackened bone and charcoal deposits have been found among H. erectus fossils, dated from 500,000 to 830,000 BP.

Africa

The earliest definitive evidence of human control of fire was found at Swartkrans

Swartkrans

Swartkrans is a location in South Africa, around from Johannesburg.Swartkrans is a farm near to Sterkfontein, notable for being extremely rich in archaeological material, particularly hominid remains. It was purchased by the University of the Witwatersrand in 1968...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. Several burnt bones were found among Acheulean

Acheulean

tools, bone tools, and bones with hominid-inflicted cut marks. This site also shows some of the earliest evidence of carnivory in H. erectus. The Cave of Hearths in South Africa has burned deposits dated from 200,000 to 700,000 BP, as do various other sites such as Montagu Cave (58,000 to 200,000 BP) and at the Klasies River Mouth (120,000 to 130,000 BP).

The strongest evidence comes from Kalambo Falls

Kalambo Falls

Kalambo Falls on the Kalambo River is a 772ft single drop waterfall on the border of Zambia and Tanzania at the southeast end of Lake Tanganyika. The falls are some of the tallest uninterrupted falls in Africa...

in Zambia

Zambia

Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....

where several artifacts related to the use of fire by humans had been recovered including charred logs, charcoal, reddened areas, carbonized grass stems and plants, and wooden implements which may have been hardened by fire. The site was dated through radiocarbon dating

Radiocarbon dating

Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...

to be at 61,000 BP and 110,000 BP through amino acid racemization

Amino acid dating

Amino acid dating is a dating technique used to estimate the age of a specimen in paleobiology, archaeology, forensic science, taphonomy, sedimentary geology and other fields. This technique relates changes in amino acid molecules to the time elapsed since they were formed.-Principle:All...

.

Fire was used to heat treat silcrete

Silcrete

Silcrete is an indurated soil duricrust formed when silica is dissolved and resolidifies as a cement. It is a hard and resistant material, and though different in origin and nature, appears similar to quartzite...

stones to increase their workability before they were knapped into tools by Stillbay

Stillbay

The Stillbay industry is the name given by the archaeologists Goodwin and van Riet Lowe in 1929 to a mid-Palaeolithic stone tool manufacturing style after the site of Stilbaai in South Africa where it was first described. It may have developed from the earlier Acheulian types...

culture. This research identifies this not only with Stillbay sites that date back to 72,000 BP but sites that could be as old as 164,000 BP.

Asia

At Qesem Cave

Qesem Cave

The Qesem Cave is an archeological site 12 km east of Tel-Aviv in Israel that is dated during the Lower Paleolithic as having been occupied by early humans from before 382,000 BP to around 200,000 BP....

12 km east of Tel-Aviv evidence exists of the regular use of fire from before 382,000 BP to around 200,000 BP at the end of Lower Pleistocene. The large quantities of burnt bone and moderately heated soil lumps suggest butchering and prey-defleshing took place near fireplaces.

At Zhoukoudian

Zhoukoudian

Zhoukoudian or Choukoutien is a cave system in Beijing, China. It has yielded many archaeological discoveries, including one of the first specimens of Homo erectus, dubbed Peking Man, and a fine assemblage of bones of the gigantic hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris...

in China, evidence of fire is as early as 230,000 to 460,000 BP. Fire in Zhoukoudian is suggested by the presence of burned bones, burned chipped-stone artifacts, charcoal, ash, and hearths alongside H. erectus fossils in Layer 10 at Locality 1. This evidence comes from Locality 1 at Zhoukoudian where several bones were found to be uniformly black to grey. The extracts from the bones were determined to be characteristic of burned bone rather than manganese staining. These residues also showed IR spectra for oxides, and a bone that was turquoise was reproduced in the laboratory by heating some of the other bones found in Layer 10. At the site, the same effect may have been due to natural heating, as the effect was produced on white, yellow, and black bones. Layer 10 itself is described as ash with biologically produced silicon, aluminum, iron, and potassium, but wood ash remnants such as siliceous aggregates are missing.

Among these are possible hearths "represented by finely laminated silt and clay interbedded with reddish-brown and yellow brown fragments of organic matter, locally mixed with limestone fragments and dark brown finely laminated silt, clay and organic matter." The site itself does not show that fires were made in Zhoukoudian, but the association of blackened bones with stone artifacts at least shows that humans did control fire at the time of the habitation of the Zhoukoudian cave.

Europe

Multiple sites in Europe have also shown evidence of use of fire by later versions of H. erectus. The oldest

Samu (Homo erectus)

"Samu" is the nickname given to a prehistoric man whose remains were found in 1965 near Vértesszőlős, Hungary. He was a late Homo erectus, somewhere between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. Only a part of the occipital bone was found...

has been found in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

at the site of Beeches Pit; Uranium series dating and TL dating place the use of fire at 415,000 BP. At Vértesszőlős

Vértesszolos

Vértesszőlős is a village in Komárom-Esztergom county, Hungary. It is most known for the archaeological site where the remains of "Samu", a prehistoric man were found.- External links :*...

, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, where evidence of burned bones, but no charcoal, had been found, dating from c. 350,000 years ago. At Torralba and Ambrona, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, show charcoal and wood, Acheulean stone tools dated 300,000 to 500,000 BP.

At Saint-Estève-Janson

Saint-Estève-Janson

Saint-Estève-Janson is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France.-Population:-References:*...

in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, there is evidence of five hearths and reddened earth in the Escale Cave. These hearths have been dated to 200,000 BP.

Changes to behavior

An important change in the behavior of humans was brought about by the control of fire and its accompanying light. Activity was no longer restricted to the daylight hours. In addition, some mammals and biting insects avoid fire and smoke. Fire also led to improved nutrition by cooked proteins.

Richard Wrangham

Richard Wrangham

Richard W. Wrangham is a British primatologist. He is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University and his research group is now part of the newly established Department of Human Evolutionary Biology....

of Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

argues that cooking of plant foods may have triggered brain expansion by allowing complex carbohydrates

Polysaccharide

Polysaccharides are long carbohydrate molecules, of repeated monomer units joined together by glycosidic bonds. They range in structure from linear to highly branched. Polysaccharides are often quite heterogeneous, containing slight modifications of the repeating unit. Depending on the structure,...

in starch

Starch

Starch or amylum is a carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by all green plants as an energy store...

y foods to become more digestible and in effect allow humans to absorb more calories. Wrangham has also suggested that eating cooked food is more "natural" for the human digestive system, because he thinks that the human digestive system may have evolved to deal with cooked foods, and that cooking explains the increase in hominid brain sizes, smaller digestive tract, smaller teeth and jaws and decrease in sexual dimorphism

Sexual dimorphism

Sexual dimorphism is a phenotypic difference between males and females of the same species. Examples of such differences include differences in morphology, ornamentation, and behavior.-Examples:-Ornamentation / coloration:...

that occurred roughly 1.8 million years ago. He also argues that raw meat and vegetables could not have provided the necessary calories to support the normal hunter–gatherer lifestyle.

Other anthropologists oppose Wrangham, stating that archeological evidence suggests that cooking fires began in earnest only 250,000 BP, when ancient hearths, earth ovens, burnt animal bones, and flint appear across Europe and the Middle East. Two million years ago, the only sign of fire is burnt earth with human remains, which most other anthropologists consider to be mere coincidence rather than evidence of intentional fire. The mainstream view among anthropologists is that the increases in human brain-size occurred well before the advent of cooking, due to a shift away from the consumption of nuts and berries to the consumption of meat.

Changes to diet

Because of the indigestible components of plants such as raw cellulose

Cellulose

Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand β linked D-glucose units....

and starch, certain parts of the plant such as stems, mature leaves, enlarged roots, and tuber

Tuber

Tubers are various types of modified plant structures that are enlarged to store nutrients. They are used by plants to survive the winter or dry months and provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing season and they are a means of asexual reproduction...

s would not have been part of the hominid diet prior to the advent of fire. Instead, the consumption of plants would be limited to parts that were made of simpler sugars and carbohydrates such as seeds, flowers, and fleshy fruits. The incorporation of toxins into the seeds and similar carbohydrate sources also affected the diet, as cyanogenic glycosides such as those found in linseed, cassava

Cassava

Cassava , also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates...

, and manioc are made non-toxic through cooking.

The teeth of H. erectus over time showed gradual shrinking, suggesting that later members of the species transitioned from eating crunchier foods such as crisp root vegetables to softer foods such as meat and various cooked foods. The evidence of cooking of meat comes from burned and blackened animal bones found at various archaeological sites.

Wrangham suggested that by cooking meat, it acted as a form of "pre-digestion", allowing less caloric intake to be spent on digesting the tougher proteins such as collagen

Collagen

Collagen is a group of naturally occurring proteins found in animals, especially in the flesh and connective tissues of mammals. It is the main component of connective tissue, and is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up about 25% to 35% of the whole-body protein content...

and the tougher carboyhydrates. The digestive tract shrunk, allowing more calories to be given to the growing brain of H. erectus. Other scientists disagree with Wrangham's assumption. Neurobiologist John Allman believes that cooking did not affect the brain development of H. erectus, but rather contributed to the development of the brain in Neanderthal

Neanderthal

The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...

s and early modern human

Human

Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

s. Paleoanthropologist C. Loring Brace agrees with Allman's theory that cooking did not affect H. erectus development, stating that he has only found evidence of earth-oven cookware from the past 200,000 years, which does not correlate with the earliest known use of fire from 800,000 years ago. Carel van Schaik believes that cooking did contribute to human evolution, but it was not the only factor that lead to the increased brain power of modern hominids. Rather, as Leslie Aiello suggests, the changes came in groups; increased consumption of meat, the smaller digestive system, cooking, and upright walking all contributed to the growth of the brain.

Dental anthropologist Peter Lucas suggests that the advent of cooking and preparing it by making food easier to chew led to the issues of malocclusion

Malocclusion

A malocclusion is a misalignment of teeth or incorrect relation between the teeth of the two dental arches. The term was coined by Edward Angle, the "father of modern orthodontics", as a derivative of occlusion, which refers to the manner in which opposing teeth meet.-Presentation:Most people have...