From Newsgroup: talk.origins
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/early-human-fire-evolution-rcna247493
There is much older evidence of fire use by Homo erectus in Africa, but
this study claims that Neanderthals were making fire by flint and pyrite 400,000 years ago. The article notes that there is better evidence that
later Neanderthals were using flint and pyrite to create sparks to
initiate fire, but that the 400,000 year old evidence is too fragmentary
and circumstantial. The current study found flint tools and fragments
of pyrite at the site, but they did not find flint tools showing wear
that would indicate that they were being used to strike pyrite.
What I found most interesting was the analysis of 93 extant hunter
gatherer bands that found that some of them did not know how to make
fire, and relied on carrying embers with them or maintaining the fire continuously. Some of the bands relied on only a few individuals that
knew how to make fire. That seems like a strange thing to keep others
from knowing how to do it.
https://hraf.yale.edu/ehc/documents/1417
Ron Okimoto
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