Control of fire by early humans

"Control of fire" redirects here. For the process of suppressing or extinguishing a fire, see Fire control. For components that assist weapon systems, see Fire-control system.
"History of fire" redirects here. For the pre-human history of fire on earth, see Fossil record of fire. For the study of the history of wildfires, see Fire history.
Not to be confused with Controlled burn.

The control of fire by early humans was a critical technology enabling the evolution of humans. Fire provided a source of warmth and lighting, protection from predators (especially at night), a way to create more advanced hunting tools, and a method for cooking food. These cultural advances allowed human geographic dispersal, cultural innovations, and changes to diet and behavior. Additionally, the ability to start fires allowed human activity to continue into the darker and colder hours of the evening.

Evidence for using fire versus fire-making follow different timelines, as the earliest human fires were probably embers taken from wildfires ignited by lightning and carried back to a cave. Claims for the earliest definitive evidence of using fire by a member of Homo range from 1.7 to 2.0 million years ago (Mya). Evidence for the "microscopic traces of wood ash" as use of fire by Homo erectus, beginning roughly 1 million years ago, has scholarly support. Some of the earliest known traces of fire usage was found at the Daughters of Jacob Bridge, Israel/Golan Heights, and dated to ~790,000 years ago. At the site, archaeologists also found the oldest likely evidence (mainly, fish teeth that had been heated deep in a cave) for the controlled use of fire to cook food ~780,000 years ago. However, some studies suggest cooking started as early as ~1.8 million years ago.

The oldest definitive evidence for fire making, igniting a new fire, dates to about 400,000 years ago at a Neanderthal site in eastern England where burnt soil was found along with fire-cracked flint handaxes and two fragments of iron pyrite, used to strike sparks with flint. Fire was used regularly and systematically by early modern humans to heat treat silcrete stone to increase its flake-ability for the purpose of toolmaking approximately 164,000 years ago at the South African site of Pinnacle Point. Evidence of the use of controlled fire becomes far more widespread, frequent, and convincing between 300,000 and 400,000 years ago and becomes nearly as universal in its use by anatomically modern humans around 125,000 to 120,000 years ago as its use in the modern day.

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