Fire-making materials at 400,000-year-old site are the oldest evidence of humans making fire
toggle caption Jordan Mansfield/Courtesy Pathways to Ancient Britain Project
It's easy to take for granted that with the flick of a lighter or the turn of a furnace knob, modern humans can conjure flames — cooking food, lighting candles or warming homes.
For much of our history, archaeologists think, early humans could only make use of fire when one started naturally, like when lightning struck a tree. They could gather burning materials, move them and sustain them. But they couldn't start a fire on their own.
At some point, somewhere, that changed.
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