How Did Hominins Adapt to Ice Age Europe without Fire?

Abstract

Analyses of archaeological material recovered from several Middle Paleolithic sites in southwest France have provided strong corroborating data on Neanderthal use of fire. Both direct and indirect data show that Neanderthals in this region were frequently and/or intensively using fire during warmer periods, but such evidence declines significantly in occupations that took place during colder periods. One possible explanation for this pattern is that it reflects the inability of Western European Neanderthals to make fire, simply because natural sources of fire occur much more frequently during warmer climatic periods. Regardless of the explanation, the long periods of diminished evidence of fire shows that, unlike modern humans, these hominins were not obligate fire users, and this fact in itself raises important questions of how they adapted, physiologically and/or technologically, to the generally harsh glacial conditions of the middle latitude of Europe and to reduced energy returns typical of raw food. As a corollary, it also raises questions regarding their need for and use of fire during the warmer periods.

Were Western European Neandertals Able to Make Fire?

“…Given the imprecision of our dating and the coarseness of the local environmental indicators, such small-scale changes are virtually invisible in the depositional record of our sites. More importantly, and as we have previously reported (Dibble et al 2017;Sandgathe et al 2011), our data show that some burning occurred at the sites we studied even during occupations that took place during conditions that were generally cold. Our conclusion was that the frequency or intensity of burning decreased significantly during these times, not that it was completely absent.…”

“…He is entirely mistaken, however, in attributing to us this concept of Neandertals as obligate fire users. To the contrary, one of the main conclusions of our work on the late Neandertals of southwest France (Dibble et al 2017;Sandgathe et al 2011) is that they were not obligate fire users, based on the very fact that they significantly decreased the use of fire during colder periods. For us, this suggests that Neandertals did not necessarily rely on fire to survive.…”

“…We recently did our own study of fire use through time at Combe Grenal using the same methodology we have applied elsewhere, namely calculating the percentage of heated lithics (Dibble et al 2017). The results (Fig.…”

“…Based initially on our work at two Middle Paleolithic sites in southwestern France, Pech de l'Azé IV (Pech IV) and Roc de Marsal, a pattern emerged that suggested varying use of fire by the sites' occupants (Sandgathe et al 2011;Aldeias et al 2012;Goldberg et al 2012;Dibble et al 2017). Variation in fire use would not be particularly surprising in itself-of course there are a multitude of reasons why people did or did not use fire at any particular time and place.…”

“…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.…”