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 ...
this video shows making a brick stove and then mudding it over (it could then be portable):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH8Qkpbotvg
more stoves:
http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Rocket_Stove
the 16-brick stove video is towards the bottom
Salamanders gave humans fire.
Prometheus just grabbed the glory.
:)
Thank you. I will bookmark ‘em.
Excellent educational material. Good info for survivalists if things get really crazy.
I like Sterno for hiking and short-term camping. However, long-term survival means making do with what’s available (and what you had in your bug-out kit, LOL).
Thanks for calling attention to forgotten skills. I wonder if anyone’s done a thread on various ways of finding water sources (in the wild, so to speak) and to purify water from suspect sources.
I seem to recall a survivalist thread, but I can’t find it, now - always good info to know.
Surely this exposes you, one way or another.
Wait - I found one:
Survival Kits For Our Upcoming “Future”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2685093/posts
I don’t believe this, human were smart even at the beginning of creation (maybe even more intelligent than us).
Oh it did not.
Very good. Is that you?
Yep, we live in a world of lost knowledge.
Thank you. No it isn't me, I just like to read his blog every day because he's one who likes to think outside the box and has a great sense of humor, to boot.
I’ve bookmarked him - that’s a rare combination - and thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome! But beware! He grows on you. :)
BFLV
Yes, it exposes the fact that I reject arbitrary and capricious babbling nonsense.
Then you;ll probably like these stoves.
http://www.zzstove.com/
:’)
:’)
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