Now a sprawling international team of archaeologists, paleontologists, geologists, and others say that they have documented compelling evidence that our ancestors’ first known use of fire dates back 700,000 years earlier than prior estimates. Employing a new luminescence technique to date burnt bone fossils, the researchers estimate that ancient hominids inhabiting the cave were likely fueling their fires with animal droppings as far back as 1.07 to 1.79 million years ago.
Humans Were Using Fire Long Before Scientists Thought Possible, Study Says
Submitted 3 weeks ago by Midnight@slrpnk.net to archaeology@mander.xyz
Comments
Zachariah@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Shit has been on fire for awhile it seems.
- Zachariah@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe
finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago Theg: “Man, the animakls have been dropping turds like nobody’s business today! What do we do with it all?”
Gok: “Burn that shit!”
Einskjaldi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Keeping a fire going is much easier than starting one
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
does poo burn particularly well?
- Zachariah@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
spicehoarder@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago - Smell delicious burn meat from a brush fire
- Associate delicious flavor from roasting flesh
- Observe how fire naturally starts.
- Use intuition.
Rubbing my hands makes me warm. Thus rubbing dry wood makes wood warm. Really warm wood causes fire. Use fire to eat delicious meat.
I’m pretty sure the defining feature of homo erectus is the ability to grasp cause and effect, fire should be pretty early game.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
i’m curious how many inventions we just passively consider advanced or accidental were in fact people going “this copper stuff is great but it’s pretty hard to find, there’s green rock all around it so… let’s try melting that? wuhey it worked! Now we have access to way more copper! Hm, wonder if other rocks melt into something neat…”
iocase@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
I always thought it would be from fire pits reducing ore into metal. Suddenly your firepit rocks have little beads of copper metal in them for some reason. Cause and effect again.
patruelis@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Which humanoids?
idiomaddict@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Homo erectus
DagwoodIII@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
essell@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m now anthropologist, but I’m fairly short use of fire goes back earlier than that.
Can confirm, used fire in 2011.
Source?