Tag

Fire Use

All articles tagged with #fire use

human-history10 days ago•16 min saved

Hobbit-Sized Hominins Likely Scavengers Amid Komodo Dragons on Flores

A Smithsonian-led study argues that Homo floresiensis on Flores were probably scavengers rather than big-game hunters or fire users. By examining Stegodon florensis insularis bones for dragon and hominin tooth scores, and reviewing 10,061 Liang Bua artifacts alongside experiments with living Komodo dragons, researchers found the hobbit-like hominins left marks on smaller, less meat-rich pieces and that evidence for fire at the site likely comes from later Homo sapiens, not H. floresiensis, though debates about their behavior persist.

via Gizmodo|

#fire-use #flores-island #homo-floresiensis

science21 days ago•5 min saved

Ancient Sparks: Evidence Pushes Fire Use by Early Humans Back to Over 1 Million Years

A non-invasive analysis of Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa finds burnt bones and heated remains dating from about 1.07 to 1.79 million years ago, likely linked to Homo erectus, well inside the cave rather than at the entrance. This suggests early humans actively used and possibly transported and maintained fire, pushing back the timeline for controlled fire use; researchers used bone fluorescence to distinguish true fire alteration from other changes, with findings published in PLOS One.

via ScienceAlert|

#archaeology #early-humans #fire-use

archaeology1 month ago•8 min saved

Ancient Lakeshore Driftwood Fueled 780,000-Year-Old Campfires

Analysis of 266 charcoal fragments from the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov site shows early humans relied on driftwood along a lakeshore to keep fires burning, enabling repeated occupation and cooking fish, revealing advanced environmental knowledge and resource management during the Middle Pleistocene.

via SciTechDaily|

#archaeology #driftwood #fire-use

archaeology1 month ago•44 min saved

Ancient fire inside Wonderwerk Cave rewrites early human timeline

A new PLOS One study finds repeated burning in Wonderwerk Cave deposits dated to about 1.07–1.79 million years ago, among the oldest known records of hominin fire use. By analyzing 161 small-mammal bones with FTIR and bone luminescence, researchers detected heating deep inside the cave (at least 30 meters in) in distinct clusters, suggesting early Homo erectus populations carried and maintained fire for warmth, light, and protection—well before cooking became widespread.

via Archaeology News Online Magazine|

#archaeology #early-humans #fire-use

science8 months ago•4 min saved

Archaeologists' Neanderthal Cooking Reveals Shocking Findings

A recent study challenges traditional views of Neanderthals as limited hunters by showing they skillfully processed small birds and used fire for cooking, which may have led to underrepresentation of such behaviors in the archaeological record due to bone fragility and preservation biases, suggesting a higher level of cognitive and behavioral complexity than previously thought.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#archaeology #cooking #fire-use

science1 year ago•3 min saved

Early humans mastered fire earlier than thought

A new study reveals that early humans began using fire around 50,000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought, influencing regional environments and the global carbon cycle, with implications for understanding human impact on climate history.

via Earth.com|

#archaeology #carbon-cycle #climate-impact

science1 year ago•3 min saved

Prehistoric Humans Used Fire for Meat Preservation and Protection, Not Cooking

A new study suggests that early humans used fire not primarily for cooking, but to protect and preserve large animal meat through smoking and drying, which later facilitated cooking, highlighting a shift in dietary practices driven by the need to safeguard food sources.

via Gizmodo|

#early-human-diet #fire-origin #fire-use