Set aside your matches or lighter and try to start a fire—chances are you’d be left cold and hungry. But as early as 400,000 years ago, ancient hominins may have had the skills to conjure flame, ...

LONDON (AP) — Scientists in Britain say ancient humans may have learned to make fire far earlier than previously believed, after uncovering evidence that deliberate fire-setting took place in what is ...

Four hundred thousand years ago, near a water hole on grasslands bordering a forest in what is now southern England, a group of Neandertals struck chunks of iron pyrite against flint to create sparks, ...

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 ...

At a site called East Farm in England, recent excavations revealed reddened silt, flint handaxes distorted by heat, and fragments of a mineral—iron pyrite—that could have been used to make sparks on ...

Neanderthals 400,000 years ago were striking flints to make fires, researchers have found. Neanderthals 400,000 years ago were striking flints to make fires, researchers have found. An artist’s ...

The controlled use of fire was a key part of the development of human technology with a range of uses that greatly expanded human cultural evolution. Although evidence at a number of archaeological ...

An artist's impression shows sparks from flint and pyrite, in this image released on December 10, 2025. Craig Williams, The Trustees of the British Museum/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN ...

Starting a fire is no easy feat, but new research suggests ancient humans were doing it hundreds of thousands of years ago. A new study, published in the journal Nature today, has uncovered the oldest ...

Evidence of a hearth dating to about 415,000 years ago Researchers think that Neanderthals were responsible Discovery made near the village of Barnham in Suffolk Dec 10 (Reuters) - Scientists have ...