New evidence pushes back earliest known human fire use to 1.8 million years ago
By
Tom Metcalfe
Summary
Archaeologists have discovered evidence of controlled fire use by Homo erectus at Wonderwork Cave in South Africa, dating back up to 1.8 million years. The burnt remnants of owl pellets found in the cave indicate that early hominids regularly used fire, pushing back the earliest-known evidence of fire use by roughly 300,000 years. The research was published in PLoS One on June 1.
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Twitter / XNew evidence pushes back earliest known human fire use to 1.8 million years agosciencenews.orgKey quotes
· 3 pulledNew evidence of early fire use comes from South Africa's Wonderwork Cave, which was inhabited by groups of Homo erectus between 1.8 million and 900,000 years ago.
Archaeologists have discovered traces of fires built up to 1.8 million years ago in a cave in southern Africa.
The burnt remnants of owl pellets reveal that the fires were regularly used by groups of the human ancestor Homo erectus, researchers report June 1 in PLoS One.
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