The spread of a stone tool technology called the Acheulean may be linked to the exploitation of fire in Europe.Credit: WH_Pics / Shutterstock
Posted on 05/27/2023 2:39:15 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
...In Europe, it is generally accepted that fire was routinely exploited by hominins at least 350,000 years ago, with some suggestion of fire control being linked to the expansion of a particular stone tool technology known as the Acheulean... there is a concurrent rise in apparent prehistoric "fireplaces", or hearths, and burnt Acheulean artefacts, such as hand-axes made from flint and a sedimentary rock called chert, at lots of European sites dated between 450,000 and 250,000. Many of these also contain charred plant materials and bones...
Before the new evidence, the oldest clear evidence of fire control in Europe came from Menez-Dregan in France and Bolomor Cave in Spain, which are both dated to about 200,000 years ago. Another early site with clear evidence of domestic fire use is Abrigo de la Quebrada in Spain, dated to around 100,000 years ago...
The new evidence from the Valdocarros II site in Spain, dated to about 250,000 years ago...
Recently published data on lipid biomarkers from various archaeological sites reveals details of the unique resources—for example, the types of wood—used to create isolated campfires associated with Acheulean artefacts...
Corroborative evidence comes in the form of molecules called polyaromatic hydrocarbons..., which are products of incomplete combustion. Analysis of these reveals that decaying pine at Valdocarros II was burned at low temperatures of around 350° for relatively short periods...
Thus the fires at Valdocarros II look to have been used for activities such as cooking. The intriguing record of fire use at this Spanish site begins to emerge upon combining all of the available evidence. For instance, there is a rich fossil record of mammals at Valdocarros II that includes abundant butchered red deer (Cervus elaphus) and the wild ancestors of domestic cattle, known as aurochs (Bos primigenius).
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
The spread of a stone tool technology called the Acheulean may be linked to the exploitation of fire in Europe.Credit: WH_Pics / Shutterstock
:^) I was wondering if anyone would notice. :^)
I’ve found a few arrowheads through the years, and they fascinate me to this day! So much work to make one...and usually ‘D’OH!’ you hit it and split it, LOL!
My In-Laws owned a farm down the road from mine, with a rather large pond on the property.
In the ‘dry years’ when the pond was low, we’d all be digging because THAT’S when the treasures could be found. Lots of Native Americans settled in that area back in the day. Arrowheads and flint fire-starters.
I tend think of figures like “50,000 years” as relatively arbitrary. Maybe that makes me an outcast from the world of science, but the credulity is stretched beyond wanter into wine by the same Man who created the heavens and the earth in six days.
Joe and the Volcano
Are they sure? It may have been 49,000 years earlier than previously thought. Or possibly 52,000 years earlier. Was the science not settled?
Technically, when it’s a volcano involved, the first uses the humans...
Fire ... don’t try to get through an Ice Age without it.
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