Ancient Ashes in South Africa Push Fire Use Back Nearly 2 Million Years
TL;DR
A study of Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa has found charred mammal bones dating to about 1.07–1.79 million years ago, potentially the oldest evidence of human fire use and pushing the timeline back by hundreds of thousands of years. The bones were dated using magnetostratigraphy and cosmogenic burial dating, and burn evidence was confirmed via bone luminescence. While not proving cooking or a defined pyrotechnology breakthrough, the findings suggest repeated fire use that could have shaped hominin behavior, ecology, and evolution during the early Acheulean era.
- Humans may have discovered fire hundreds of thousands of years before previously thought: new research New York Post
- Early humans used fire in Wonderwerk Cave up to 1.8 million years ago Archaeology News Online Magazine
- New study finds hominids used fire 700,000 years earlier than previously recorded Interesting Engineering
- Hominids used fire 700,000 years earlier than previously thought Science Media Centre España
- South African Cave May Hold Oldest Evidence of Human Fire Use GreekReporter.com
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