Evrim Yazgin
Cosmos science journalist
Ice Age hearths in Ukraine have been studied using innovative archaeological techniques to better understand how ancient humans used fire.
Human ancestors have been using fire for a long time. Homo erectus may have been the first human to control fire up to 2 million years ago. There is evidence from nearly 800,000 years ago of humans using fire to cook food. Controlling fire is considered one of the cornerstones of human evolutionary and social development.
But there is a gap in archaeological evidence of human fire use during coldest period of the last Ice Age between 26,500 and 19,000 years ago.
The new study, published in the journal Geoarchaeology, helps fill this gap.
It shows that humans between 45,000 and 10,000 years ago were using fire in a variety of ways.
“Fire was not just about keeping warm; it was also essential for cooking, making tools and for social gatherings,” says a lead author Philip R. Nigst from Austria’s University of Vienna.
“We know that fire was widespread before and after this period, but there is little evidence from the height of the Ice Age,” says lead author William Murphree, a geoarchaeologist at the University of Algarve in Portugal.
The team identified 3 simple, flat, wood-fire hearths in Ukraine using advanced techniques such as microstratigraphic analysis, micromorphology and colorimetric analysis.
Fires in these ancient hearths would have reached 600°C. Such temperatures are impressive given the harsh environmental conditions and point to mastery of sophisticated pyrotechnics.
Spruce wood appears to have been the fuel of choice, but other fuels such as animal bones and fat were also present.
“People perfectly controlled the fire and knew how to use it in different ways, depending on the purpose of the fire. But our results also show that these hunter-gatherers used the same place at different times of the year during their annual migrations,” explains Nigst.
Despite these new findings, why there are such a small number of fireplaces from the height of the Ice Age remains a mystery.
“Was most of the evidence destroyed by the ice-age-typical, alternating freezing and thawing of the soil?” asks Murphree.
“Or did people not find enough fuel during the Last Glacial Maximum? Did they not use fire, but instead relied on other technological solutions?” adds Nigst.
The researchers hope that their findings and future discoveries will shed light on how ancient humans used fire over time.
