Fire in Human Evolution

[NavajoEverclear]

when was fire discovered? is the impulse/ability to start fires to some degree evolutionarily ingrained, or was it learned after a certain amount of social order was achieved, and then passed on by teaching? just wondering.

[EL]

Fire was never discovered by the human tree dwellers.

We have two scientific sources of knowledge (leaving out guessing and speculations as possible), archaeological information relates fire to the tool-age, and written history of passed on spoken stories an mythology, tells us about humans being kicked out of paradise before fire was ever mentioned. Even animal domestication was a very advanced level then, but humans had to face desert and dryness after heavy rains in Africa where it all began. The folkloric Myth is about following the Nile North to the sea and living in caves beside swamps.

The place was full of predators, lions, hyenas, crocodiles, hippopotami, and other less dangerous animals.

 

Therefore, we must relate fire to the human hunter because our teeth were perfectly adapted to eating fruits, roots and leaves. When humans began hunting they had big trouble eating anything but fish without tools.

Nets, spears and flint-axes were the first tools other than shell-(dishes, spoons and knives).

The caveman intelligence reached a peak when a sharp shard of volcanic hard stone was used to carve a conical hole in flint (archaeology), and that hole was most probably used for sharpening wooden ends. That is how the bow was invented for sharpening and not for hunting at first, when very dry wooden chips fell right beside the being sharpened tip that got very hot by friction it caught on fire. We do not know how long time passed between discovering fire and finding useful usage for it. But the most probable incident is a correlation between thunder hitting forest and burning animals resulting a discovery about fire cooking flesh and making fire on purpose to cook and kill predators as well.

[swansont]

We do not know how long time passed between discovering fire and finding useful usage for it.

 

 

My guess is that itook less than 30 seconds to notice that it was a way to stay warm.

[Edward]

Yes but how to contain it as well as maintain it? A certain amount of R & D would have to have been done just as with electricity.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Probably people were standing around a forest fire, and they were nice and warm, and then the lunatic of the group went up and grabbed a burning log and went running around with it. Quickly he learned to hold it by the non-burning end. Voila, a torch.

 

Building campfires would take a bit longer.

[NavajoEverclear]

when did evidence for weilding of fire start showing up? or i guess rather, by interpreting the evidence, around what time do they think humans were successfully using fire

[neo007]

around what time do they think humans were successfully using fire

 

As i remember homo Erectus were first to use fire, purposefully. Evidence of ash remains has been found around the time that the homo Erectus were alive.

Neanderthals, which came after the Erectus, definitely used fire not only for cooking and keeping warm, but probably also for hunting large animals for food.

[EL]

<http://homeofpoi.co.uk/articles/History_of_fire.php>

{It is believed by some that fire was first created by lightening. Caveman saw the fire and was attracted to it. Maybe they would have thought that a part of the sun had broken off and fallen to earth. It is believed that fire was first used and controlled by caveman about 1,420,000 years ago. Although caveman did not know how to create fire himself using friction or flint until about 7000B.C. Fire was used to keep warm, cook, illuminate and later to clear forests of trees to create open areas to better hunt animals. Fire was also used in fighting and wars.}

 

But:

 

<http://www.moria.co.nz/sf/questforfire.htm>

Is even better.

 

QUEST FOR FIRE:

{Plot: 80,000 years ago. The primitive Ulam tribe's most precious possession, their fire, is accidentally put out during a clash with another tribe. Three men are chosen and sent on a quest to find a new source of fire. Their quest leads them to a series of discoveries that takes them up the ladder towards civilization and finally to the very secret of making fire itself. }

 

[Sayonara]

Please make the effort to (a) cite properly and (b) use VB tags.

[YT2095]

another possibility could have been noticing tiny sparks whilst making tools from stone, especialy Flint, I`de imagine making fires that way would have been sooner than the application of "Friction" started fires.

[LucidDreamer]

another possibility could have been noticing tiny sparks whilst making tools from stone, especialy Flint, I`de imagine making fires that way would have been sooner than the application of "Friction" started fires.

Hmm, interesting point. Of course, some silly cave man may have been bored out of his primitive mind one day and decided to rub sticks together all day to see what happens. Surely man used wood tools for a long time before flint. Either way I would say that man learned to use tools and make fire himself before he used fire on a regular basis. I don't think man could have kept fire going that long from lightning if he did not have the ability to restart it. So therefore tools are a prerequisite to fire, but I'm probably the last moron to come to that realization.

[cool_b74]

don't go back into history.

just think what a man does when he is alone.or a child when he/she is young, either he sets a target for himself and looks for a stone and hit at it. or he will take a stone and scratch and bore holes in tree trunks or any surface. stone hits stone , spark can be seen . a curious mind can look for better ways to produce a bigger spark.