Oldest evidence of fire-lighting comes from early humans in Britain

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New Discovery

Deliberate fire-making by humans in the UK may date to more than 400,000 years ago, according to evidence described in Nature this week. The discovery of baked sediments, heat-shattered flint axes and pieces of pyrite in a disused claypit in the east of England suggests that humans at this site were able to make and maintain fires. The findings predate previous evidence for the deliberate lighting of fires by around 350,000 years and indicate a shift in human behaviour that may have contributed to an increase in brain size and cognitive abilities. Excavation of 400,000 year old pond sediments at Barnham, Suffolk.

Gowlett adds that the new evidence is convincing, but he is cautious about interpreting the findings as evidence of habitual or routine fire-making. “It’s an important site, but one swallow does not make a summer,” he says. “You’d want to see a lot more examples before you could confidently say this was a regular thing.”

Ashton agrees that it is important not to over-interpret the findings. “But we can say with confidence that fire-making was taking place at this site,” he says. “It’s a significant moment in human history in the UK.”

The discovery raises questions about why humans at the site made fires. “It’s unlikely that this was solely for warmth, light or cooking, because we know that other hominins used fire for these purposes without controlling it,” says Ashton.

One possibility is that the early humans at Barnham were using fire to make tools from flint, he says. The heating process can make flint easier to shape, and the handaxes found at the site show signs of having been heated.

“The control of fire and the use of fire are two different things,” says Ashton. “We currently don’t know enough about the motivations of these early humans, but we’re hoping to find out through further excavation and analysis.”

He adds that the findings challenge the idea that Neanderthals were cognitively inferior to modern humans. “This evidence shows that they were innovative and skilled, capable of controlling fire and using it to their advantage,” he says.

The study is published in Nature.

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