A team of researchers led by the British Museum has unearthed the oldest known evidence of fire making, dating back over 400,000 years, in a field in Suffolk. The discovery shows humans were making fire around 350,000 years earlier than previously known.
Sites in Africa suggest humans used natural fire over a million years ago, but the discovery at the Palaeolithic site in Barnham evidences the creation and control of fire, which carries huge implications for human development and evolution. Until now, the oldest known evidence of fire making was from 50,000 years ago, found in northern France.
The evidence, probably produced by some of the oldest Neanderthal groups, consists of a patch of heated clay, heat-shattered flint hand axes and two small pieces of iron pyrite. It has taken the team, led by Nick Ashton and Rob Davis at the British Museum, four years to demonstrate that the heated clay was not caused by wildfire. Geochemical tests show temperatures of over 700°C with repeated fire-use in the same location of the site - indicating a campfire, or hearth, that had been used by people on several occasions.
Iron pyrite is a naturally occurring mineral that can be used to strike flint, creating sparks to ignite tinder. Pyrite's rarity in the local area suggests these early people had knowledge of its properties, where it could be sourced and brought it to the site to make fire.
The evidence sits alongside other indicators of complex behaviour in ancient humans, at a time when brain size approached modern levels.
Fire making enabled humans the freedom to choose their campsites, without needing to continually feed the fire, as it could be re-ignited when and where required.
This control of fire had practical benefits of protection and warmth, enabling humans to spread and thrive in colder and harsher environments. Importantly, it widened the range of foods that could be safely eaten by removing toxins from roots and tubers, or pathogens from meat through cooking. Tenderising these foods improved digestion, freeing up energy from the gut and fuelling the brain.
Being able to process a wider range of foods supported better survival and larger more complex social groups.
Evidence of fire use rarely survives and is notoriously hard to demonstrate. Ash and charcoal can easily be blown or washed away, and baked sediments can be eroded and dispersed. Heated artefacts survive but it is often difficult to rule-out incidental burning in a wildfire, which is what makes the preservation of the Barnham evidence so exceptional. Notable sites in the UK, France and Portugal point to an increase in the importance of fire to early humans between 500,000 and 400,000 years ago. Barnham provides an explanation for why - the introduction of fire-making.
The University of Liverpool's Dr Sally Hoare was part of the research team. Her role focused on analysing reddened sediments to determine whether they represented a hearth created by human activity or resulted from natural processes (such as wildfires) or natural redoximorphic processes in the soil (such as iron oxidation which can also cause colour changes). Traditionally, hearths in the archaeological record are identified by reddened layers overlain by ash and charcoal. However, at Barnham-and many other open-air sites-wind and water often remove these indicators, leaving only patches of reddened clay, making it challenging to confirm human involvement.
To address this, Dr Hoare applied three scientific techniques to the reddened soils and adjacent areas: soil micromorphology, archaeomagnetism, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) analysis.
Professor Nick Ashton, Curator of Palaeolithic Collections at the British Museum, said: "This is the most remarkable discovery of my career, and I'm very proud of the teamwork that it has taken to reach this ground-breaking conclusion. It's incredible that some of the oldest groups of Neanderthals had the knowledge of the properties of flint, pyrite and tinder at such an early date."
The University of Liverpool's Dr Sally Hoare said: "These findings suggest that humans at Barnham actively created their own fires. The presence of pyrite fragments at Barnham is the earliest known evidence of strike-a-light technology. This discovery extends the chronology of fire-making technology by approximately 400,000 years and establishes Barnham as a key global reference point for the earliest known fire-making practices."
Dr Rob Davis, Project Curator: Pathways to Ancient Britain at the British Museum, said: "The implications are enormous. The ability to create and control fire is one of the most important turning points in human history with practical and social benefits that changed human evolution. This extraordinary discovery pushes this turning point back by some 350,000 years."
The work also involved colleagues from the Natural History Museum, London, Queen Mary University of London, UCL and Leiden University.
