Technology & Medicine › Prehistory
Control of fire
c. 1 million years ago; routine by c. 400,000 years ago· Invention or discovery· Tools, energy & materials
DebatedHistorians or scientists disagree about what happened, when, or why.
Early humans learned to use and keep fire for warmth, light, protection and cooking.
See it on the Technology & Medicine map →How it works
The earliest widely accepted evidence is burned bone and plant ash inside Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa, about 1 million years old. Claims of 1.5 million years ago at Koobi Fora, Kenya, are contested. Hearths at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov in Israel, about 790,000 years ago, suggest repeated use. By about 400,000 years ago fire appears routinely at sites in Europe and the Middle East. Cooking softened food and killed germs, firelight lengthened the day, and heat let people survive colder lands.
Why it mattered
Cooking unlocked more energy from food, possibly fueling larger brains, and fire later became the basis of pottery, metals and engines.
How we know
Charred bone, ash and heated flint in cave sediments, studied under microscopes; hearth patterns at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov and Qesem Cave in Israel.
Still unknown or debated
When people could start fire at will, rather than capture wildfire, is unknown. Richard Wrangham argues cooking began about 1.8 million years ago, earlier than firm evidence shows.
Connections (3)
▸Acheulean hand axe was made by the likely first masters of Control of fireDebated
The connection
The earliest fairly convincing traces of fire use, at Wonderwerk Cave about 1 million years ago and Gesher Benot Ya'aqov about 790,000 years ago, lie in layers with Acheulean hand axes. So the hand-axe makers, Homo erectus and its successors, were probably the first to keep fire. The link is shared location, not cause.
When and how
Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa, about 1 million years ago; Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel, about 790,000 years ago; both with Acheulean tool kits.
How sure are we?
Burned bone, ash and heated flint found together with hand axes in the same dated layers.
Debates and open questions
Which species first controlled fire, and whether early users only borrowed natural fires, is open; evidence is thin before 400,000 years ago.
▸Control of fire made possible the firing of PotteryWell documented
The connection
Clay becomes durable ceramic only when heated to about 600 °C or more, which takes a controlled fire. Early potters fired pots in open bonfires; later, enclosed kilns reached higher, more even temperatures and made stronger, less porous ware. That mastery of high heat later fed into metal smelting.
When and how
Xianrendong Cave, China, about 20,000 years ago; fired clay figurines at Dolní Věstonice, Czech Republic, are older still, about 26,000 years.
How we know
Laboratory tests on ancient sherds reveal the temperatures they were fired at, and early kilns are excavated at Near Eastern and Chinese sites.
Debates and open questions
How people discovered that heat hardens clay, perhaps from clay-lined hearths, is unknown.
▸Control of fire was harnessed in furnaces for Bronze metallurgy (the Bronze Age)Well documented
The connection
Melting copper takes about 1,100 °C, far hotter than a campfire. Metalworkers built furnaces packed with charcoal and forced in air with blowpipes or bellows. The burning charcoal also pulled oxygen out of the ore, freeing the metal. Much of this heat control was probably learned from pottery kilns.
When and how
The Balkans and Iran by about 5000 BC for copper; bronze-casting furnaces across the Near East by about 3000 BC.
How we know
Excavated furnaces, crucibles and clay blowpipe nozzles, plus slag whose chemistry reveals the temperatures reached.
Debates and open questions
Whether copper smelting began in one place or several, and how much it owed to pottery kilns, is debated.