oneeighthirish t1_j649wf6 wrote
Reply to comment by Chrome_Pwny in Obsidian handaxe-making workshop from 1.2 million years ago discovered in Ethiopia by rmaccr
I thought fire use predated Homo Sapiens, and that Homo Sapiens have been around for 300,000+ years. Although, I'm completely ignorant and at most an extremely casual layman when it comes to paleoanthropology
dra6000 t1_j65vpk6 wrote
Fire use predates fire making. Historically, hominids would feed a fire to keep it going but not know how to make one from scratch. Fire use started in areas with active volcanic activity and lava flows so getting a fire wasn't that hard if you lost one.
It's first primitive use was to scorch bushland. You could forage for roasted fruit, nuts, and rodents after.
Homo Sapiens while being around for 300,000 years were still evolving long after their emergence. The largest set of activity was in the brain. The most you could go back and not be able to tell cognitively between modern humans is probably 100,000 years. That's when advanced cultures started to emerge (not civilization, just cultures).
amateur_mistake t1_j6546cl wrote
Yeah. Fire use is a million - 1.5 million years old (as far as people can tell). We just didn't have good evidence of any cooking going on in the fires.
Which doesn't mean it wasn't happening. Just that we can't show that it was.
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