400,000-Year-Old Hearth Discovered in Suffolk, England

A hearth dated to 400,000 years ago has been unearthed near the village of Barnham in Suffolk, England, as reported by CNN. This significant discovery includes heat-shattered flint axes and two pieces of iron pyrite, believed to have been used to create sparks.

Nick Ashton of the British Museum stated that the hearth contains hydrocarbons from burned wood and signs of repeated burning, marking it as the earliest evidence for the controlled use of fire in the world.

Notably, no hominin remains have been found at the Barnham site, leaving it unclear who may have started the fires. However, Neanderthal fossils dated to the same time period have been found approximately 80 miles away.

Ashton expressed that while many scholars suspected regular fire usage in Europe around 400,000 years ago, this discovery provides the first concrete evidence. The previous oldest known fire-making site, dated to 50,000 years ago, is located in northern France.

In contrast, evidence for fires older than 800,000 years has been identified at archaeological sites in Israel, Kenya, and South Africa, though it remains uncertain if those fires were started and controlled by humans.

For further details, interested readers can refer to the article titled 'Evolve and Catch Fire.'