The taming of fire is credited with sparking humanity's evolutionary journey towards our modern levels of intelligence. Fire gave early humans access to a broader range of safe foods, fueling the ...

Four hundred thousand years ago, near a water hole on grasslands bordering a forest in what is now southern England, a group of Neandertals struck chunks of iron pyrite against flint to create sparks, ...

The presence of pyrite was an unmistakable sign. Striking flint against pyrite nodules creates sparks, and which can be used to start fire. This pushes back the earliest known controlled use of fire ...

New findings suggest humans mastered fire far earlier than believed, transforming diets, social life, and survival in ancient ...

Sites in Africa suggest humans used natural fire over a million years ago, but the discovery at the Palaeolithic site in Barnham evidences the creation and control of fire, which carries huge ...

The oldest evidence for human ancestors using fire, dating back to between 1 million and 1.5 million years ago, comes from a cave in South Africa. Human ancestors left behind tens of thousands of ...

Archaeologists in Britain say they've found the earliest evidence of humans making fires anywhere in the world. The discovery ...

Some of history's most important inventions can be credited to the British, from the steam engine to the World Wide Web. Now, research places one of the world's most profound discoveries on our shores ...

Something about a warm, flickering campfire draws in modern humans. Where did that uniquely human impulse come from? How did our ancestors learn to make fire? How long have they been making it? Stream ...

Archaeological evidence makes a compelling case for Neanderthal-created fires 400,000 years ago in Suffolk, UK — plus, how chatbots can sway the opinions of voters.

It's easy to take for granted that with the flick of a lighter or the turn of a furnace knob, modern humans can conjure flames — cooking food, lighting candles or warming homes. For much of our ...