Comment by throwup238
7 hours ago
We have evidence of control over fire (but not fire starting) at about 1 million years. Stone tools go even further back, at least 2 million years.
7 hours ago
We have evidence of control over fire (but not fire starting) at about 1 million years. Stone tools go even further back, at least 2 million years.
Wait hang on, would they "control" file by finding natural sources (volcano, lightning strike wildfire, etc.) and then make use of that source for controlled sources of light/heat/etc? I guess I've always thought of "control" of fire including the intentional starting thereof.
> Wait hang on, would they "control" file by finding natural sources (volcano, lightning strike wildfire, etc.) and then make use of that source for controlled sources of light/heat/etc?
Pretty much. Being able to transfer/build a fire is a lot easier than starting one. Fire starting requires bow/flint&steel and a lot of patience. Control basically means using simple torches to transfer fire from one place to another (where the initial source is either lightning/wildfire or embers of a previous fire).
Some very recently published research (Dec 2025) claims evidence of fire starting among homo neanderthalensis. This would push back fire starting know-how (not only control) from 50k to 400k years ago. Cool stuff!
[1] https://www.nhm.ac.uk/press-office/press-releases/groundbrea...
Firehawks spread fire to scare out game; that count?
https://wildlife.org/australian-firehawks-use-fire-to-catch-...
ah, there's a very good movie about this exact topic (not scientifically accurate, one presumes, but still very good)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_Fire_(film)
Not to mention the Iron Maiden song! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF7cWpBTZ6s
There's pretty strong evidence that the use of fire to cook food is what enabled modern humans, with their short (and relatively fragile) digestive systems and giant energy hungry brains to evolve. Cooking food makes more calories bio-available in food and also reduced the amount of energy the body needs to expend on that food to harvest calories... so there's more energy available for thinking (etc).
When is the first evidence for cooking?
2 replies →
And cooking kills like 99+% of pathogens, which freed us from much of the parasite/disease stress other animals must live with.
I had thought (perhaps wrongly) that our brains got a massive "boost" in capacity when our ancestors moved to coastal areas and the diet was dominated by (Omega 3 heavy) shellfish and crustaceans.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9505798/