Human discovery of fire
Human discovery of fire made it easier for early humans to survive in a hostile world in the Stone Age. In winter, the fire warmed the cave where they lived. Because animals are afraid of fire, they use fire to intimidate and drive them away.
Fire dried his wooden spear, making the food more delicious and nutritious. The original source of fire may be taken from lightning and volcanoes. It is possible to imagine that early humans were initially afraid of trees that were struck by lightning and caught fire. And when he used the extinguished afterfire, his fear was quickly replaced by curiosity. Human curiosity overwhelms fear, and soon fire is used to keep warm. Perhaps they would send an older person to guard the fire, because the knowledge of artificial fire making will take place a long time later.
If the fire is extinguished due to the carelessness of the fire guard, then all the anger of the fallen person will be vented on the careless fire guard. So far, the earliest evidence of human use of fire was found in a cave in Zhoukoudian, China. There, 500,000 years ago, Beijingers enjoyed the warmth and bento brought by fire.
Scientists believe that their primitive intelligence lacks to help them create fire, and they can only bring the remaining fire into the cave so that the fire can last forever. A 25-foot-thick ashes of fire were found in an fire pit in a Beijing Renshan Cave. The latest discoveries in Africa seem to prove that the history of human distant ancestors using fire was nearly one million years earlier than the above example. A large amount of burned clay was found in Kenya western archaeological excavations, with some rough stone tools and animal bones.
Chemical tests show that the clay was heated to 750 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the temperature of the open campfire. isotope detection shows that the age of these clays is 1.4 million years. Recently, an earlier site was discovered in the Witklan Cave in South Africa, about 1.5 million years ago. There, two scientists dug out a large number of carbonized animal bones. Many bones have traces of cutters, which illustrates that the flesh on the bones is cut and eaten. The application of fire has greatly changed the dietary habits of Homo erectus, making meat easier to digest, more nutritious and free of bacteria.
In a warm and cozy environment all year round, these early humans may not need to use fire to maintain the temperature in the cave. Fire is a useful assistant, but in the early days, people only applied fire by chance. If they want to use it, they had to have the ability to steal the fire from nature. Before humans learn how to preserve or migrate with them, the fire must be extinguished again and again.
The excavation stopped in the Sweet Crane Cave indicated that several people were eaten by large cats, such as saber-toothed tiger . When humans are brave enough to approach fire in nature, they find that extinguished sticks can scare off predators. This makes them understand that keeping fire around the camp at night can prevent hole bears or saber-toothed tigers from approaching them. Since early humans were vulnerable to risky, agile predators, doing so might be their first use of fire. The human bones found above the fire strata are only 1/4 of the human bones in the fire strata.
When humans find that igniting the forest can drive prey to the empty center and let them mercy of spears, wooden sticks, and stone axes, they think of the possibility of hunting with fire. At the same time, they will also notice that their wooden spears, bone or horn sticks will become harder after being roasted over fire.
humans have used fire for 1.5 million years. From this point of view, humans discovered fire at least 2 million years ago. It's incredible that it took so long for humans to create a way to make fire. It was not until 100,000 years ago that humans achieved this great achievement during the Neanderthal period.
There is a firefighter in Neanderthal tools. European Neanderthals were actually the first humans to live in sub-Arctic and Arctic conditions. In summer, they travel in the frozen soil zone and chase various preys. But in the brutal winter of the Ice Age, such a roaming is impossible.They held the torches and drove the bears and lions out of the limestone holes, blocked the openings of the holes, and curled up comfortably and warmly on the skins. Fire extends their lives and improves the quality of life.
