Research into early use of fire could help solve human evolution mystery
Archaeologists have taken a crucial step towards solving one of human evolution’s greatest mysteries.
More than two decades ago, a British scientist proposed that a major change in human anatomy, some 1.8 million years ago, had been generated by humanity’s discovery that it could use fire to cook food, thus making it more digestible.
The problem was that archaeologically, there was no scientific proof that humans even knew how to use fire, let alone cook with it before around 250,000 years ago.
But now, archaeologists from Israel and Canada have carried out new scientific research proving that early humans were using fire at least 900,000 years ago.