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Type: Journal Article
Author(s): J. A.J. Gowlett
Publication Date: June 2016

Numbers of animal species react to the natural phenomenon of fire, but only humans have learnt to control it and to make it at will. Natural fires caused overwhelmingly by lightning are highly evident on many landscapes. Birds such as hawks, and some other predators, are alert to opportunities to catch animals including invertebrates disturbed by such fires and similar benefits are likely to underlie the first human involvements with fires. Early hominins would undoubtedly have been aware of such fires, as are savanna chimpanzees in the present. Rather than as an event, the discovery of fire use may be seen as a set of processes happening over the long term. Eventually, fire became embedded in human behaviour, so that it is involved in almost all advanced technologies. Fire has also influenced human biology, assisting in providing the high-quality diet which has fuelled the increase in brain size through the Pleistocene. Direct evidence of early fire in archaeology remains rare, but from 1.5 Ma onward surprising numbers of sites preserve some evidence of burnt material. By the Middle Pleistocene, recognizable hearths demonstrate a social and economic focus on many sites. The evidence of archaeological sites has to be evaluated against postulates of biological models such as the 'cooking hypothesis' or the 'social brain', and questions of social cooperation and the origins of language. Although much remains to be worked out, it is plain that fire control has had a major impact in the course of human evolution. This article is part of the themed issue 'The interaction of fire and mankind'. © 2016 The Author(s). Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, whch permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.

Online Links
Citation: Gowlett, J. A. J. 2016. The discovery of fire by humans: a llong and convoluted process. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, v. 371, no. 1696, p. 50164. 10.1098/rstb.2015.0164.

Cataloging Information

Topics:
Regions:
Keywords:
  • anthropology
  • archaeology
  • evolution
  • fire management
  • histories
  • human evolution
  • lightning caused fires
  • Palaeoanthropology
  • paleoecology
  • wildfires
Tall Timbers Record Number: 32493Location Status: Not in fileCall Number: AvailableAbstract Status: Okay, Fair use, Reproduced by permission
Record Last Modified:
Record Maintained By: FRAMES Staff (https://www.frames.gov/contact)
FRAMES Record Number: 54700

This bibliographic record was either created or modified by Tall Timbers and is provided without charge to promote research and education in Fire Ecology. The E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database is the intellectual property of Tall Timbers.