US EditionEarliest Evidence of Human Fire-Making Discovered in England
Fire evidence includes a hearth, heat-shattered tools, and rare iron pyrite fragments indicating controlled fire-making 350,000 years earlier than previously known, researchers said.
- Published on December 10, the British Museum-led study in Nature reports fire-making evidence at Barnham, Suffolk over 400,000 years ago, pushing the timeline back 350,000 years.
- Researchers have long debated whether early hominins made fire or captured wildfires, complicating interpretation amid sparse, ambiguous evidence despite traces as early as 1.5 million years and Neanderthal claims around 40,000 years ago.
- At Barnham, excavators uncovered heated clay, heat-shattered flint handaxes, and two fragments of iron pyrite, while laboratory analyses show repeated heating above 700°C and pyrite transport.
- Study authors say intentional fire-making enabled cooking, improving nutrition and brain growth, but no hominin remains were found, so early Neanderthals or Homo heidelbergensis are plausible candidates.
- Some reviewers noted the lack of direct spark scars on pyrite and flint, while independent archaeologists called the evidence compelling amid rising European Paleolithic fire use around 400,000 years ago.
145 Articles
145 Articles
This Is the Oldest Evidence of Humans Making Fire
Archaeologists in England say a few tiny mineral flecks may rewrite a big chapter in human prehistory. At a site called Barnham in Suffolk, researchers uncovered what they describe as the oldest direct evidence of fire-making: traces of iron pyrite, or fool's gold, which sparks when struck against flint, alongside...
By Katie Hunt. A team of archaeologists has unearthed the oldest and most conclusive evidence of the earliest known instance of humans creating and controlling fire in a field in eastern England. This significant find, experts say, marks a dramatic turning point in human evolution. In Barnham, Suffolk, the discovery of baked clay hearths, heat-broken flint axes, and two fragments of pyrite—a type of stone used to create sparks for lighting a lig…
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