Study Pushes Homo Erectus Fire Use Back to 1.79 Million Years, 700,000 Earlier Than Thought
Updated
Updated · Science Media Centre España · Jun 1
Study Pushes Homo Erectus Fire Use Back to 1.79 Million Years, 700,000 Earlier Than Thought
1 articles · Updated · Science Media Centre España · Jun 1
Summary
Burned animal-bone pellets found in South Africa’s Wonderwerk Cave suggest Homo erectus used fire as early as 1.79 million years ago, far earlier than the roughly 1 million-year benchmark previously tied to the same site.
A PLoS ONE team reached that conclusion with a non-destructive luminescence method, cross-checked with FTIR, that detects heat-altered bones by how they glow under powerful blue light.
The strongest case for human involvement is that the burned remains sit about 30 meters inside the cave and recur through the sequence, making accidental carry-in from outside less likely.
Researchers and outside experts still say the claim is not definitive because Stratum 11 spans a broad 1.79 million-to-1.07 million-year range and lacks direct evidence such as ash, cooking traces or clear ignition features.
Even with those caveats, the study’s bigger impact may be methodological: it offers a new way to test disputed early-fire evidence across the Pleistocene and could reshape timelines for human evolution if confirmed.
If a new light technique can find ancient fire, what other long-held beliefs about our ancestors will it soon overturn?
Did our ancestors master fire-making 1.8 million years ago, or were they simply harvesting flames from natural wildfires?
Earliest Controlled Fire Use by Hominins Found at Wonderwerk Cave—Now Dated to 1.07–1.79 Million Years Ago
Overview
A recent study at Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa has dramatically changed our understanding of early human fire use. Researchers re-dated the earliest evidence of hominin fire control, pushing the timeline back to between 1.07 and 1.79 million years ago. This extends the known history of fire use by nearly 700,000 to 800,000 years. The discovery is based on careful analysis of archaeological layers and fossil remains, making the findings robust. This breakthrough represents a major shift in how we view the technological abilities and evolution of early humans.