Oldest evidence of people starting #fires
Heat-reddened clay, #fire-cracked stone, and fragments of pyrite mark where #Neanderthals gathered around a campfire 400,000ya in #Suffolk, #England.
Based on chemical analysis of sediment at site, along with the telltale presence of pyrite, a mineral not naturally found nearby but very handy for striking sparks with flint, British Museum #archaeologist Rob Davis and colleagues say Neanderthals probably started fire themselves.
arstechnica.com/science/2025/1…
Heat-reddened clay, #fire-cracked stone, and fragments of pyrite mark where #Neanderthals gathered around a campfire 400,000ya in #Suffolk, #England.
Based on chemical analysis of sediment at site, along with the telltale presence of pyrite, a mineral not naturally found nearby but very handy for striking sparks with flint, British Museum #archaeologist Rob Davis and colleagues say Neanderthals probably started fire themselves.
arstechnica.com/science/2025/1…
This is the oldest evidence of people starting fires
We didn’t start the fire. (Neanderthals did, at least 400,000 years ago.)…Kiona N. Smith (Ars Technica)
