250 thousand years ago the first controlled fire for cooking in Europe
The history of man is intimately linked to the use and control of fire, but it is difficult to figure out when man began to control and exploit it.
This is partly due to the incomplete nature of the archaeological record and also due to the fact that the use of fire is temporary and makes it difficult to notice and find burnt remains difficult to locate.
But the Heriot Watt University team has found evidence of the controlled use of fire by direct human ancestors – or hominins – at a site in Spain dating back 250,000 years.
This dates the earliest evidence of fire control in Europe back 50,000 years. The results were published in Nature Scientific Reports. It is very special to find remains of human and fire ancestors in the same place.
There is much older evidence of hominins using fire, but it may have been hominins using the hot embers of a natural fire to cook their food.
The controlled use of fire is one in which man lights it intentionally and then manages, for example, its extent or temperature. This is what we tested on the site in Spain.
Much older evidence, from non-European countries, that could derive from man's use of natural flames, comes from the Swartkrans cave in South Africa, where hominin remains have been found with hundreds of burnt animal bones, dating back to a period between 1 and 1.5 million years ago.
Burnt animal bone fragments have also been identified at the 1.5-million-year-old site known as FxJj 20AB at Koobi Fora, Kenya.
However, the finding of hominin artifacts and burnt bones at the same site does not by itself indicate a coincidence in time, much less that humans controlled fire. The path to its controlled use is likely to have been gradual.
Intentional use?
Fast-forward nearly a million years and we come to the first strong evidence of man-made fire: An open-air site called Gesher Benot Ya'aqov in Israel, dated to about 790,000 years ago. Evidence found at this site includes charred plants and burnt stone tools lying next to each other.
Other sites in Israel, such as Quesem Cave, with artifacts dated between 420,000 and 200,000 years ago, and Tabun Cave, where archaeological discoveries date back to about 340,000 years ago, have similar evidence of fire.
While these early records are indicative of fire control, it can be difficult to make a direct link between resources such as wood fuel, activities such as fire preparation, and intention – likely a prerequisite for controlled fire.
In Europe, it is generally accepted that fire was routinely exploited by hominins at least 350,000 years ago, and some suggestions of fire control are related to the expansion of a particular stone tool technology known as Acheulean.
Indeed, at many European sites dated to between 450,000 and 250,000, there is a simultaneous increase in prehistoric "hearths" and burnt Acheulean artifacts, such as hand axes made of flint and a sedimentary rock called chert. Many of these also contain plant materials and charred bones. However, there is some reason to believe that these associations are of natural origin, for example due to fire or lightning.
Before the new evidence, the oldest strong evidence of fire control in Europe came from Menez-Dregan in France and Bolomor Cave in Spain, both dated to around 200,000 years ago.
Another prehistoric site with clear evidence of the domestic use of fire is Abrigo de la Quebrada in Spain, dated to around 100,000 years ago.
New landmark
New evidence from the Valdocarros II site in Spain, dated to around 250,000 years ago, provides a new point of reference for understanding our ancient relationship to fire.
Lipid biomarkers are remnants of molecules from specific sources, such as particular types of wood, and left over from processes such as fire.
Recently published data on lipid biomarkers from various archaeological sites reveal details of the unique resources – for example, types of wood – used to create isolated bonfires associated with Acheulean artifacts. Lipid biomarkers from Valdocarros show diagnostic signatures indicating the use of decaying pine as fuel.
Interestingly, pollen and water-climate records from the surrounding region suggest that rotting pine would have been an uncommon resource.
The evidence consists of molecules called polyaromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which are products of incomplete combustion. Analysis of these reveals that the decaying pine of Valdocarros II was burned at low temperatures, around 350°C, for relatively short periods.
Fires that are too hot tend to char and burn food on the outside before the inside of the object has reached a useful temperature. The lower temperatures are needed to break down biological tissues so that they are more easily digestible, one of the main reasons for cooking food.
Conversely, it is unlikely that low-temperature fires were used only for heating, as the more common wood burns at higher temperatures. Another benefit of using rotting pine is that it is easy to ignite.
Choice of fuel
The fires of Valdocarros II appear to have been used for activities such as cooking . The intriguing documentation of the use of fire at this Spanish site begins to emerge when all available evidence is combined.
For example, there is a rich mammalian fossil record at Valdocarros II, including abundantly slaughtered red deer (Cervus elaphus) and the wild ancestors of domesticated cattle, known as aurochs (Bos primigenius). Aurochs could each weigh up to 1,500 kg or more.
Thus, the hominins at this site exhibit all the prerequisites needed to control fire: the use of specific resources, such as decaying pine wood; specific activities, such as low-temperature fires used for cooking; and intent, which may be implied by the need to transport large carcasses to one place where fire was used.
By any standard, Valdocarros II's hominins controlled the fire. The site is not the oldest, nor the first instance of controlled fire. Rather, it is a significant landmark in the course of human evolution because it sets a clear time limit for the emergence of a distinctive human characteristic.
The work done at Valdocarros II also creates the opportunity for a broader discussion of how to establish intent and foresight from archaeological evidence, as well as the broader scope of human evolution and prehistory.
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The article 250,000 years ago the first controlled fire for cooking in Europe comes from Scenari Economics .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/250-mila-anni-fa-il-primo-fuoco-controllato-per-cucinare-in-europa/ on Sun, 21 May 2023 14:54:02 +0000.