1.8 million-year-old 'fiery' discovery in South African cave could change timeline of human history

A discovery in South Africa suggests that humans may have learned to control fire many years before previously estimated. Scientists have found burned mammal bones dating up to 1.79 million years in the Wonderwerk Cave, a site where many prehistoric discoveries have been made in the past. These new bones have been found inside several owl remains, such as fossilised pellets, clumps of fur, and animal remains the owls spit out.

The researchers believe that the new discovery points to the possibility that Homo erectus carried fire into the cave regularly and used the dry pellets as fuel to fan the flames. The study has been described as a "momentous shift in the relations between hominins and their natural and cultural environments" because learning to control fire marked an important chapter of human history. The groundbreaking archaeological study was published in PLOS One.

The international team of scientists analysed 161 fossilised small mammal bones, mostly obtained from pellets. They found clear signs that the tiny bones were exposed to high heat. The discovery was made nearly 100 feet deep inside the cave, which means that natural wildfires were not responsible for this occurrence, as the flames cannot spread that far into a cave's interior. Hence, humans were exposing the bones to fire themselves, the team concluded.

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Homo erectus did not know how to make fire

However, this is different from making the fire themselves and research has shown that Homo erectus were likely "harvesting" natural fires caused by lightning strikes or bushfires and then carried them into the cave, where they used different ways to keep it alive. Piles of dried owl pellets would have acted like a thick wool rug. Homo erectus dropped an ember onto the bones and fur to keep the fire smouldering in a specific, controlled spot while preventing it from spreading to other areas.

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Scientists also dismissed the possibility that the bones could have been stained black by minerals. They used a new, non-destructive luminescence technique. for this, in which they shone a specialised blue light through optical filters onto the bones, which emitted a distinct reddish glow that unburnt bones didn't.