‘Fire at will’: The emergence of habitual fire use 350,000 years ago

Shimelmitz, Ron; Kuhn, Steven L.; Jelinek, Arthur J.; Avraham, Ronen; Clark, Amy; Weinstein‐Evron, Mina

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.07.005

Cited by 151 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…These archaeological changes occur around the time period of the emergence of the Neanderthal lineage, which can be seen as independentpalaeontological-evidence for continuity of hominin occupation from that time period onward, minimally at the scale of Europe. Neanderthal populations expanded their range eastward, into the central parts of Europe from the middle part of the Middle Pleistocene,~350 ka, onward, incorporating more challenging continental environments (Cohen et al 2012;Kahlke et al 2011), an expansion that has been related to the development of new cultural and possibly biological adaptations (Hosfield 2016;MacDonald 2017;Roebroeks and Villa 2011;Shimelmitz et al 2014).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the second half of the Middle Pleistocene, from around 350 ka onward, archaeological sites are no longer limited to the western (Atlantic) and southern (Mediterranean influenced) regions of Europe but also show up in its more continental areas, east of the river Rhine catchment area (Cohen et al 2012;Conard et al 2015;Kahlke et al 2011): a range expansion into more challenging environments that might be related to the development of new strategies for survival (Hosfield 2016), including the introduction of fire as a fixed part of the hominin technological repertoire (MacDonald 2017;Roebroeks and Villa 2011;Shimelmitz et al 2014).…”

Section: Introduction the Earliest Occupation Of Europementioning

confidence: 99%

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Uneven Data Quality and the Earliest Occupation of Europe—the Case of Untermassfeld (Germany)

Roebroeks

Gaudzinski‐Windheuser

Baales

et al. 2017

J Paleo Arch

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The database regarding the earliest occupation of Europe has increased significantly in quantity and quality of data points over the last two decades, mainly through the addition of new sites as a result of long-term systematic excavations and large-scale prospections of Early and early Middle Pleistocene exposures. The site distribution pattern suggests an ephemeral presence of hominins in the south of Europe from around 1 million years ago onward, with occasional short northward expansions along the western coastal areas when temperate conditions permitted. From around 600,000-700,000 years ago, Acheulean artefacts appear in Europe and somewhat later hominin presence seems to pick up, with more sites and now some also present in colder climatic settings. It is again only later, around 350,000 years ago, that the first sites show up in more continental, central parts of Europe, east of the Rhine. A series of recent papers on the Early Pleistocene palaeontological site of Untermassfeld (Thuringia, Germany) makes claims that are of great interest for studies of earliest Europe and are at odds with the described pattern: the papers suggest that Untermassfeld has yielded stone tools and humanly modified faunal remains, evidence for a 1 million years old hominin presence in European continental mid-latitudes, and additional evidence that hominins were well-established in Europe already around that time period. Here, we evaluate these claims and demonstrate that these studies are severely flawed in terms of data on provenance of the materials studied and in the interpretation of faunal remains and lithics as testifying to a hominin presence at the site. In actual fact, any reference to the Untermassfeld site as an archaeological one is unwarranted. Furthermore, it is not the only European Early Pleistocene site where inferred evidence for hominin presence is problematic. The strength of the spatiotemporal patterns of hominin presence and absence depends on the quality of the data points we work with, and database maintenance, including critical evaluation of new sites, is crucial to advance our knowledge of the expansions and contractions of hominin ranges during the Pleistocene.J Paleo Arch (2018) 1:5-31 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41982-017-0003-

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction the Earliest Occupation Of Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Uneven Data Quality and the Earliest Occupation of Europe—the Case of Untermassfeld (Germany)

Roebroeks

Gaudzinski‐Windheuser

Baales

et al. 2017

J Paleo Arch

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“…Documenting the first of these in the hominin line is likely to be impossible, and while there is suggested evidence that the origin of human fire use extends back to more than 1 Ma (Gowlett and Wrangham 2013;Hlubik et al 2017;Rowlett 2000;Berna et al 2012;Barbetti 1986; and see Sandgathe and Berna 2017), there is little doubt that the regular use and maintenance of fire by hominins is present in Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age contexts and later (Roebroeks and Villa 2011;Barkai et al 2017;Shimelmitz et al 2014;Aldeias et al 2014;Dibble et al 2009Dibble et al , 2017Goldberg et al 2012;Rodríguez-Cintas and Cabanes 2017;Mallol et al 2013;Miller 2015;Courty et al 2012;Pasto et al 2000;Vallverdú et al 2012;Pop et al 2016;Vidal-Matutano 2016). At some point, hominins also developed the technology for starting fires, which is the question being addressed here.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Were Western European Neandertals Able to Make Fire?

et al. 2018

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Significant variability has been observed in the frequency of fire use over the course of the Late Pleistocene at several Middle Paleolithic sites in southwest France. In particular, Neandertals appear to have used fire more frequently during warm climatic periods and very infrequently during cold periods. After reviewing several lines of evidence and alternative explanations for this variability, the null hypothesis that these Neandertals were not able to make fire still stands.

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“…Some workers have suggested that early Homo erectus was already a proficient fire user by 1.8 million years ago (Carmody and Wrangham 2009;Wrangham 2009;Gowlett and Wrangham 2013). Reviews of the European evidence (Roebroeks and Villa 2011) and from the Levant (Shimelmitz et al 2014) however suggest that there was no habitual fire use there until much later, from approximately 350,000 years ago onward, despite some singular early contenders like Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (Goren-Inbar et al 2004;Alperson-Afil and Goren-Inbar 2010). Using and producing fire is not necessarily the same (Sorensen et al 2014), and Sandgathe and colleagues (2011) hypothesize that only modern humans at the very end of the Late Pleistocene were able to produce fire at will, rather than being dependent on natural fires or kindling them over prolonged periods of time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fires at Neumark-Nord 2, Germany: An analysis of fire proxies from a Last Interglacial Middle Palaeolithic basin site

Pop

Kuijper

Hees

et al. 2016

Journal of Field Archaeology

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Few sites with evidence for fire use are known from the Last Interglacial in Europe. Hearth features are rarely preserved, probably as a result of post-depositional processes. The small postglacial basins (<300 m in diameter) that dominate the sedimentary context of the Eemian record in Europe are high-resolution environmental archives often containing charcoal particles. This case study presents the macroscopic charcoal record of the Neumark-Nord 2 basin, Germany, and the correlation of this record with the distinct find levels of the basin margin that also contain thermally altered archaeological material. Increased charcoal quantities are shown to correspond to phases of hominin presence-a pattern that fits best with recurrent anthropogenic fires within the watershed. This research shows the potential of small basin localities in the reconstruction of local fire histories, where clear archaeological features like hearths are missing.

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‘Fire at will’: The emergence of habitual fire use 350,000 years ago

Cited by 151 publications

References 35 publications

Uneven Data Quality and the Earliest Occupation of Europe—the Case of Untermassfeld (Germany)

Uneven Data Quality and the Earliest Occupation of Europe—the Case of Untermassfeld (Germany)

Were Western European Neandertals Able to Make Fire?

Fires at Neumark-Nord 2, Germany: An analysis of fire proxies from a Last Interglacial Middle Palaeolithic basin site

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