Homo Sapiens May Not Have Been the First Species to Use Fire

[Judi Lynn]

By
James Ssengendo
December 9, 2022

New emerging evidence discovered in South Africa nullifies prior suggestions indicating that homo sapiens were the first species to use fire.

Analysis of fossil remains unearthed from the Rising Star Cave system in South Africa indicates that Homo naledi, an extinct species of hominid, actually built fires in the underground chambers.

The same Dinaledi underground chamber has now been found to have housed controlled fires, thought to be lit and fed by the ancient hominins.

The discovery was announced on December 1st at a lecture given by National Geographic Explorer-at-Large Professor Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg at Carnegie Institution of Science in Washington.

“We are fairly confident to formulate the hypothesis that this small-brained hominid, Homo naledi, that existed at the same time we believe Homo sapiens were sharing parts of Africa, was using fire for a variety of purposes,” he said.

More:
https://greekreporter.com/2022/12/09/homo-sapiens-not-first-species-use-fire/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Finding ancient fire use in the Rising Star cave systemThis week my colleague Lee Berger gave a Carn

The study of the underground landscape enters a new phase with evidence of charcoal and burned animal bone in deep chambers.

7 DEC 2022 — 6 MIN READ

This week my colleague Lee Berger gave a Carnegie Science lecture on the future of exploration. He recounted some of the outcomes of our team's fieldwork in the Rising Star cave system this year, including his own perilous journey into the Dinaledi subsystem of the cave. There are some exciting finds from this fieldwork that the team is still working on. One thing that Lee was able to share is that we now have abundant evidence of ancient fires within deep chambers of the cave system where we also have evidence of Homo naledi bones.

The team identified charcoal, burned bone, or other evidence of fire in at least four chambers, widespread from each other in deep parts of the system. Some of this evidence is from excavations led by Dr. Keneiloe Molopyane in the Dragon's Back Chamber, including concentrations of well-preserved charcoal, ash, and discolored clay that appear to be small hearths. The excavations also turned up many fragments of animal bone. The Dragon's Back Chamber is immediately adjacent to the Dinaledi subsystem of the cave, and these excavations are into sediment at a similar depth as the situation of H. naledi fossil material in Dinaledi.

In addition to Dragon's Back, in two other deep chambers our exploration has encountered concentrations of charcoal. Both of these situations are areas where our team has not previously focused any investigations, and one of the chambers has burned animal bone on the cave floor with charcoal.

Besides the charcoal evidence, Lee identified surfaces with discoloration consistent with soot. Some of this evidence occurs within the Dinaledi Chamber above skeletal remains of Homo naledi.

More:
https://johnhawks.net/weblog/ancient-fire-use-rising-star/

[rampartc]

2. it sounds as if they are more confident that the naledi were homo

rather than australopithecus. the pbs show on thus excavation, by a team of specially recruited very small females (to fit into the site) was very memorable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_naledi

[if..fish..had..wings]

3. My understanding is that Homo erectus first controlled fire

Almost 700,000 years ago (and used naturally occurring fire much earlier).

This predates the existence of both sapiens and naledi by 400,000 years.

[wnylib]

4. Agree. I was about to say the same thing before I saw your post.

Homo erectus lived hundreds of thousands of years earlier than sapiens or naledi and had the controlled use of fire. I don't remember ever seeing a claim that Homo sapiens was the first to use fire so I don't know what the article is referring to when it says that's what was believed before naledi.