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It Took Humans Many Chilly Millennia to Master Fire
Live Science ^ | March 14, 2011 | Unknown

Posted on 03/14/2011 8:42:49 PM PDT by decimon

Early humans may have moved north into the chilly latitudes of Europe hundreds of thousands of years before mastering a crucial technology: Fire.

A survey of 141 archaeological sites in Europe found no evidence of habitual use of fire prior to about 400,000 years ago. Early humans arrived much earlier. Some archeological evidence indicates they arrived in southern Europe more than a million years ago, and the Happisburgh site in the northeastern part of England's Norfolk region contains stone tools dating back more than 800,000 years ago.

Evidence for the use of fire – concentrations of ashes and charcoal, sediments reddened by heat, rocks scarred by heat and burned bones – is nonexistent in Europe until around 400,000 years ago, write the researchers Wil Roebroeks of Leiden University in The Netherlands and Paola Villa of the University of Colorado Museum in Boulder.

The earliest possible evidence of fire comes from two sites that date back to that time, they write. These are located in Schöningen, Germany (where heated stone and charred wood, including a wooden tool, have been found) and the Beeches Pit in England (where archaeologists have uncovered evidence of ancient fireplaces). The sites containing strong evidence of fire, 119 total, are all believed to have been occupied by Neanderthals.

The researchers' conclusion is controversial, because others have put early humans' mastery of fire earlier in our history, as long ago as 2 million years. What's more, fire is widely thought to have made the transition northward — into areas where the temperature dropped below freezing — possible.

Richard Wrangham, of Harvard University, has argued that by making cooking possible, the use of fire allowed our ancestors to evolve larger, more calorie-hungry brains and bodies, and smaller guts suited for more easily digested food.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: gagdadbob; godsgravesglyphs; onecosmos
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1 posted on 03/14/2011 8:42:54 PM PDT by decimon
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To: SunkenCiv

Hang fire ping.


2 posted on 03/14/2011 8:43:37 PM PDT by decimon
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To: decimon

“tools dating back more than 800,000 years ago”

Yep. They know because of the minerals they found it in.

And they date those minerals by the artifacts found in it...


3 posted on 03/14/2011 8:47:44 PM PDT by Christian Engineer Mass (25ish Cambridge MA grad student. Many younger conservative Christians out there? __ Click my name)
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To: decimon

We still haven’t mastered fire, that why we have fire departments.


4 posted on 03/14/2011 8:55:15 PM PDT by ThomasThomas (it said the speeling was OK)
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To: decimon


5 posted on 03/14/2011 9:00:06 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Visualize)
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To: decimon
Early humans may have moved north into the chilly latitudes of Europe hundreds of thousands of years before mastering a crucial technology: Fire.

Wait a minute... I thought Prometheus gave fire to man, against the wishes of the mighty Zeus.

6 posted on 03/14/2011 9:05:03 PM PDT by Peanut Gallery
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To: decimon

Some still have not mastered it yet.


7 posted on 03/14/2011 9:05:25 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: decimon; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach ·
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Thanks decimon.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
 

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8 posted on 03/14/2011 9:06:44 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

9 posted on 03/14/2011 9:11:50 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: decimon
Myths of the Tenured
10 posted on 03/14/2011 9:24:19 PM PDT by Matchett-PI ("Freedom's Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Tax " ~ Gagdad Bob)
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To: decimon

maybe it wasn’t as chilly as we thought? If people used the equivalent of 16-brick stoves which use very little fuel, would there be fire traces of their use?


11 posted on 03/14/2011 9:24:24 PM PDT by blueplum
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To: SunkenCiv
I've always thought that women mastered fire.



Otherwise why would the men folk bring back the bacon?

12 posted on 03/14/2011 9:38:20 PM PDT by BIGLOOK (Keelhaul Congress!)
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To: blueplum

Actually, Sterno stoves were used. They were so valued, that they were passed down through the generations and is why we can not find any evidence of them in archeological digs.

http://www.sterno.com/retail/pages/stove.html

;^D


13 posted on 03/14/2011 9:39:03 PM PDT by RebelTex (Freedom!! It's not just another word.)
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To: RebelTex

funny funny, but seriously, 16-brick stoves only take a few twigs to boil water and the heat is focused up not on the ground, leaving no scorched rocks


14 posted on 03/14/2011 9:41:49 PM PDT by blueplum
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To: decimon
The researchers' conclusion is controversial, because others have put early humans' mastery of fire earlier in our history, as long ago as 2 million years

It wouldn't be the only time the technology of fire was lost.

When the Brits showed up the native Tasmanians were ignorant of fire.

15 posted on 03/14/2011 9:48:33 PM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 782 of our national holiday from reality. - tic. tic. tic. It's almost 3 AM)
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To: blueplum

I want to know how to make 16 brick stoves. What are they?


16 posted on 03/14/2011 9:51:56 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: little jeremiah
It is rocket science...
17 posted on 03/14/2011 9:54:51 PM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 782 of our national holiday from reality. - tic. tic. tic. It's almost 3 AM)
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To: decimon

What ignorant bullshit!

How gullible do these apes think we are?


18 posted on 03/14/2011 9:56:06 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Going 'EGYPT' - 2012!)
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To: null and void

>> “It is rocket science...” <<

.
Beans for dinner?


19 posted on 03/14/2011 9:57:48 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Going 'EGYPT' - 2012!)
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To: null and void

Really! When there’s no electricity I want to be able to cook, after my propane tanks run out. I have a wood cook stove but they’re so hot to cook on. I like the sound of one that uses twigs.


20 posted on 03/14/2011 10:01:05 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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