Evidence found of earliest human fire use

BOSTON, April 2 (UPI) -- Archaeologists say evidence of the oldest known human-controlled fire has been found in a cave in South Africa.

A member of the Homo genus, perhaps Homo erectus, made a fire a million years ago that produced ashes and charred bone in Wonderwerk Cave, they suggest.

The remains show no signs of having been carried there by wind, water or wildfires, which researchers suggest shows the find is the oldest secure evidence for controlled fire use. The findings fit with a belief Homo erectus was already cooking food at least a million years ago -- with some researchers saying it could even have been 2 million years ago, researchers said.

Characteristics of the burned bone fragments show they were heated to about 900 degrees Fahrenheit, consistent with a controlled fire of some kind, archaeologist Francesco Berna of Boston University and his colleagues said.

Cooking may not have been the only reason our human ancestors may have had for wanting to tame fire, the researchers said.

"Socializing around a campfire might be an essential aspect of what makes us human," archaeologist and study coauthor Michael Chazan of the University of Toronto told ScienceNews.org.

Several stone artifacts from the same ancient soil display fractures produced by heating during tool production, the researchers said.