Scientists Say Humans Were Playing With Fire Nearly 1.8 Million Years Ago
It turns out the phrase “playing with fire” may have been around a whole lot longer than anyone imagined.
Researchers studying South Africa’s famous Wonderwerk Cave say they’ve uncovered new evidence suggesting our ancient human ancestors were using fire as long as 1.79 million years ago—more than a million years earlier than many previous estimates.
The discovery comes thanks to a newly developed scientific technique capable of detecting microscopic signs of burning in fossilized bones that previously appeared perfectly ordinary.
In other words…
Someone finally invented a way to tell whether a two-million-year-old bone had been sitting next to a campfire.
Researchers found burned animal bones nearly 100 feet inside the cave, along with evidence suggesting early humans repeatedly carried naturally occurring fire into the cave and kept it alive.
That’s an important distinction.
Scientists aren’t saying these early humans knew how to strike a match or rub sticks together.
Instead, they likely borrowed fire from lightning-caused wildfires and carefully nursed the flames for as long as possible.
Because once you finally lug a fire a hundred feet into a cave…
…you probably don’t want to start over.
The ability to control fire would have been a game-changer, providing warmth during cold nights, protection from predators, light inside caves, and eventually the ability to cook food instead of chewing on whatever happened to wander by.
Researchers say the findings suggest our distant ancestors weren’t simply watching wildfires from a safe distance.
They were actively putting fire to work.
The discovery also raises an amusing question.
If people were successfully keeping campfires burning nearly 1.8 million years ago…
How is it that so many of us still can’t figure out how to light charcoal without watching three YouTube videos first?
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