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Scientist In Britain Says ancient humans learned to light fire much earlier than previously thought, after evidence was found of deliberately setting fires in what is now eastern England About 400,000 years ago.
The findings, described in the journal Nature, push the oldest known date of controlled fire making back by about 350,000 years. Where does the oldest confirmed evidence so far come from? Neanderthal Sites in what is now northern France Dates back to approximately 50,000 years ago.
The discovery was made at Barnham, a Palaeolithic site in Suffolk that has been excavated for decades. A team led by the British Museum identified a piece of baked clay, flint hand axes broken by high heat, and two pieces of iron pyrite, a mineral that produces sparks when struck with flint.
Researchers spent four years analyzing how to simulate natural wildfires. Geochemical tests revealed that temperatures had exceeded 700 °C (1,292 Fahrenheit), as well as evidence of repeated burning at the same location.
They say this pattern is consistent with a built-in stove rather than a lightning strike.
Rob Davies, a palaeolithic archaeologist at the British Museum, said the combination of high temperatures, controlled burning and fragments of pyrite showed “how they were actually making fire and the fact that they were making it.”
Iron pyrite does not occur naturally in Barnham. Its presence suggests that the people who lived there deliberately collected it because they understood its properties and could use it to light tinder.
Deliberate setting of fires is rarely preserved in the archaeological record. The ash spreads easily, the charcoal decomposes and the heat can cause erosion of the altered sediments.
However, at Barnham, burnt deposits were sealed within ancient pond sediments, allowing scientists to reconstruct how early people used the site.
Researchers say its implications for human evolution are substantial.
Fire allowed early populations to survive in cold environments, fend off predators, and cook food. Cooking breaks down toxins in the roots and tubers and kills pathogens in the flesh, improving digestion and releasing more energy to support the larger brain.
Chris Stringer, human evolution expert at the Natural History Museum, said fossils from Britain and Spain suggest that Barnham’s inhabitants were early Neanderthals whose cranial features and DNA point to increasing cognitive and technological sophistication.
Fire also enabled new forms of social life. Evening gatherings around the hearth may have provided time for planning, storytelling, and strengthening group relationships, behaviors often associated with the development of language and more organized societies.
Archaeologists say the Barnham site fits into a broader pattern across Britain and continental Europe between 500,000 and 400,000 years ago, when brain size in early humans began to approach modern levels and when evidence of increasingly complex behavior became more visible.
Nick Ashton, curator of paleontological collections at the British Museum, described it as “the most exciting discovery of my 40-year-long career”.
For archaeologists, the discovery helps address a long-standing question: when humans stopped relying on lightning strikes and wildfires and instead learned to generate flame whenever and wherever they were needed.