Fire is a superpower that gets taken for granted. It powers our lights, heats our homes, and moves us from point A to point B across land, sea, and air. The creation of controlled fire is considered one of man’s extraordinary discoveries, and Charles Darwin declared controlled fire as the most remarkable human discovery aside from language. The exact time human ancestors discovered fire is difficult to pinpoint. Various credible sources range from 1.5 million years ago to approximately 1 million years ago, citing discoveries in the Wonderwerk Cave and the discussion on the fossil record shows the variance. Regardless of the date of the discovery of fire, its discovery was a pivotal moment that set human ancestors on a new path, giving them defense from elements and predators, a method of cooking, and various social implications. The invention significantly increased their chances of survival and catalyzed what humans are today.
Around the time of fire’s invention, paleontologists believe that it helped migratory ambitions by giving early human ancestors the “…ability to spread into territories previously too cold to inhabit” as it protected them from the brutal cold as early humans migrated north and eventually around the globe (DeSilva). It also gave them immediate protection from predators. Walking on two legs rendered early human ancestors unable to climb trees efficiently and left them with no central defense mechanisms, leaving them particularly vulnerable. However, the invention of fire gave them a new method of defense (James). These added protections from the elements supported their survival, but the support goes beyond protection.
The invention of fire also supported early human diets now that they were able to cook food, which “…freed [them] from spending time chewing, eased digestion, and yielded greater caloric benefits” (Wrangham). Around the time early human ancestors invented controlled fire, their brain sizes were increasing, so that increased caloric benefit was also “…vital to supporting the outsize of the human brain, which consumes a quarter of the body’s energy” (Wrangham). Coupled with the ability to cook came social implications.
The invention of fire was also a catalyst for increased socialization. In addition to the added energy from cooking supporting both the mind and body, the “…transport of foods to a central place for cooking by day created a new social space; keeping the fire alight at night forged a new temporal space” (Wiessner). The new space, “…focused on fire and the hearth,” gifted early humans the infrastructure to socialize by granting them protection from predators, increased “daylight” hours, and a hearth to feast upon (Gowlett).
The ability to control fire increased early humans’ ability to survive, and it was a catalyst for further advancements. The force provided protection, increased nutritional intake, and aided social development, but it also became a central part of human culture and invention. At the core of human technological development is fire, which powers the cars we drive, among other day-to-day activities, so early ancestors not only discovered a tool for their survival but rather a tool carried into the modern age and has become central to human identity.
References:
Berna F, Goldberg P, Horwitz LK, Brink J, Holt S, Bamford M, Chazan M. Microstratigraphic evidence of in situ fire in the Acheulean strata of Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape province, South Africa. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 May 15;109(20):E1215-20. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1117620109. Epub 2012 Apr 2. PMID: 22474385; PMCID: PMC3356665.
DeSilva, Jeremy. First Steps: How Upright Walking Made Us Human. Harper, an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2022.
Gowlett, J. A. “The discovery of fire by humans: A long and convoluted process.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 371, no. 1696, 5 June 2016, https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0164.
James, Steven R., et al. “Hominid use of fire in the lower and Middle Pleistocene: A review of the evidence [and comments and replies].” Current Anthropology, vol. 30, no. 1, Feb. 1989, pp. 1–26, https://doi.org/10.1086/203705.
Wiessner, Polly W. “Embers of society: Firelight talk among the ju/’hoansi Bushmen.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 111, no. 39, 22 Sept. 2014, pp. 14027–14035, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1404212111.
Wrangham, Richard W. Catching Fire : How Cooking Made Us Human. Basic Books, 2009.