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 ...

Never mind AI, the internet, or the rocket – it's been argued that the control of fire was the most pivotal technological breakthrough in history. It gave our ancestors protection, the ability to cook ...

A groundbreaking discovery in Barnham, UK, has revealed the earliest evidence of humans using tools to create fire, dating back over 400,000 years. Published in Nature, this study sheds new light on a ...

Fragments of iron pyrite, a rock that can be used with flint to make sparks, were found by a 400,000-year-old hearth in eastern Britain. (Jordan Mansfield | Courtesy Pathways to Ancient Britain ...