One million year ashes suggest that fire was used earlier than expected

2012/04/04 Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Paleontologia
• Arkeologia

After analyzing the ashes of a million years discovered in a cave in South Africa, Boston University archaeologists have concluded that these ashes came from the fire of hominids. This would be the oldest trace of the use of fire. The finding has been published in the journal PNAS.

According to the researchers, grass, bushes and leaves were used to make fire and burned bones have been found. It is difficult to say what hominid there might be at that time, but researchers believe it was Homo erectus.

The supposed oldest vestiges of the use of fire have been found outside, and in these cases it is difficult to know if it was a fire produced by a natural cause. In this case, being inside the cave, there is no doubt about it. The oldest trace of using the most accepted fire so far is 780,000 years ago, discovered in Israel.