Study Pushes Human Fire Use Back to 1.79 Million Years in South Africa Cave
Updated
Updated · ScienceAlert · Jun 22
Study Pushes Human Fire Use Back to 1.79 Million Years in South Africa Cave
3 articles · Updated · ScienceAlert · Jun 22
Summary
Wonderwerk Cave deposits in South Africa show repeated human fire use between 1.07 million and 1.79 million years ago, pushing the timeline back by hundreds of thousands of years.
A new non-invasive fluorescence method identified burnt bone fragments, letting researchers distinguish true fire damage from fossilization effects that can mimic burning.
Burnt remains appeared tens of meters inside the cave near other signs of occupation, making a natural wildfire unlikely and pointing to early humans—likely Homo erectus—using and maintaining fire there.
The evidence spans multiple sediment layers separated by tens of thousands of years, suggesting fire use was repeated rather than a one-off event, though not necessarily that these humans could ignite it themselves.
Wonderwerk was already known for habitation around 1.8 million years ago and fire evidence near 1 million years ago; the new findings deepen its status as one of the oldest records of indoor human life.
How does million-year-old fire mastery change our understanding of early human intelligence and social structure?
New protein data suggests our family tree is a 'braided river.' Are we misidentifying our own ancestors?
Wonderwerk Cave Pushes Back Human Fire Use to 1.7 Million Years: How Early Control of Fire Transformed Human Evolution
Overview
A groundbreaking study published in June 2026 unveiled compelling evidence from Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa, dramatically reshaping our understanding of early human technology. The discovery pushes back the timeline for human fire use by nearly a million years, establishing a new record that almost doubles previous estimates. Researchers found burnt fossil bones of small mammals in deep Acheulean deposits, showing that early humans were using fire between 1.07 and 1.79 million years ago. These findings are set to significantly impact human evolutionary studies, offering new insights into the behaviors and capabilities of our ancient ancestors.