Neanderthals Made Fire 400,000 Years Ago in England

Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that early Neanderthals created and controlled fire around 400,000 years ago at a site in eastern England, pushing back the known timeline for this pivotal human achievement by nearly 350,000 years.

The discovery, announced Wednesday by a team led by researchers from the British Museum, centers on an ancient hearth in Barnham, Suffolk. Chemical analysis of sediment revealed heat-reddened clay baked to over 700 degrees Celsius in repeated fires, along with fire-cracked flint handaxes and fragments of iron pyrite, a mineral ideal for striking sparks against flint to ignite tinder. Pyrite is rare in the local area, suggesting the hominins transported it from distant coastal sources, indicating deliberate fire-making rather than opportunistic use of natural flames like wildfires.

"This is the oldest evidence in the world that people—Neanderthal people, in this case—had learned to not only use fire but also create it and control it," said Rob Davis, a Palaeolithic archaeologist at the British Museum who co-led the investigation. The findings, detailed in the journal Nature, stem from the Pathways to Ancient Britain project, which revisited the...