The Evolution of Fire: Discoveries and Impact on Human Development

This essay examines the pivotal role of fire in human evolution, tracing its discovery and control by early hominins. It explores the differing perspectives on the timing of fire's initial use, citing archaeological evidence from sites across Africa, Asia, and Europe. The essay discusses the impact of fire on toolmaking, diet, and adaptation to diverse climates. It delves into the 'cooking hypothesis,' highlighting how cooked food increased digestibility and energy intake, contributing to larger brain sizes and altered social structures. The essay also covers the behavioral, biological, and social impacts of fire, emphasizing its significance as a catalyst for human progress and adaptation, and its lasting effects on human evolution.

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EVOLUTION OF FIRE
One of the most tremedious discoveries that human made during the evolution period
was the ability to control fire. This was an achievement that distinguished them from apes in
whom it believed they evolved from them. Meanwhile, Researchers of both the early times

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and the modern have some differences based on facts on the exact time at which humanity-
controlled fire for the first time, (Roebroeks & Villa, 2011), Listed the arguments that
indicated the earliest possible use of fire by the early hominies being was in Africa at about
1.6 million years ago around swartkrans in south Africa to be specific. However, James et al.
(1989, 16) describes that fire might have been used to burn bones which they were used as
tools by the early hominins in about 1.0 million years ago or earlier. this proved that they
were carnivorous and they were used to hunting. They also claim that the use of fire in a
controlled fashion took place about 300, 000 to 400, 000 years ago when they used it for
other purposes like lighting the caves and attacking the wild animals. None of these claims
have been proven , but most of archeologists argues that due the low temperatures and high
freezing points in areas like Europe which was experiencing colonization at the time they
used fire for warmth. this shown some traces that use of fire was invented in the early days of
evolution of human kind.
They recorded East Africa as the origin of the control of use of fire. The first site was
in East Turkana near Lake Baringo at Chesowanjan. The first site contains traces of the stone
tools that had been altered with heat as well as preserves of the burned sediments. Many
archeologists believe that this site is a strong candidate that may indeed depict a case of the
earliest use of fire by the hominins. Similar preserves are found at the second site,Gadeb cite
in Ethiopia but the only difference with the first site is the clasts of the baked clay instead of
the burnt material as with the first site. These materials are strongly associated with an
adjacent natural burning feature, which cannot be traced.
James et al. (1989) noted that the ability to control the use of fire and manufacturing
of the stone tools were very critical to the human evolution because this gave people an
advantage of adapting over the other animals. Stone tools were discovered earlier than the

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control and manipulation of fire by hominins, but both benefited the humanity over the rest of
the animals through the increased capability to feed through burning the meat, make other
materials and to get protection. Besides, the knowledge from the fire would enable the human
to keep warm, light their surrounding and scare wild animals.
James et al. (1989) indicate that Kenya and China could form the earliest sites of the
cases of use of fire by the hominins with Kenya dating back to 1.4 million years ago at the
Chesowanja site and China’s Yuanmou site tracing back to 1.7 million years ago. However,
the is no evidence for these claims. The cave home of the Beijing man in china can be
considered to be one of the earliest homes to have had central heating in across the temperate
regions if the ash layers are used in representing the in-situ fires (James et al., 1989). No one
can prove the assumption that fire was introduced and distributed by a man just like the
assumption that the existence of burned bones among other materials indicated the use of fire
by man in cooking and also making of tools which resembled the heart.
Other than Kenya, China, and Ethiopian sites as candidates for the earliest cases of the
control and manipulation of fire by hominins, Gowlett (2016, 4) highlights other sites, which
are approximately 1.0 to 1.5 Million years. These sites include South African caves of
Wonderwerk and Swartkrans and the Kalambo Falls’ open site in Zambia (Clark and Harris,
1985, 7). The Swartkrans site is a roofed gully in which traces of burnt bone fragments and
the bone tools in the 17 square excavations,providing a strong argument that they did not
originate from the savannah fires which used to sweep up to the site due to the natural fires.
Wonderwerk site indicates a possible introduction of the vegetation materials such as grass
into the cave from the evidence of studies in the stratum 10. These materials were burned
alongside the bone preserved as microscopic fragments and traces back to approximately 1.0
Ma. Gesher Benot Ya’aqov’s site in Israel contain burnt materials preserved in a 30 meter-

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sequence, approximated to date ca 700, 000 years (Pobiner, 2013, 13). Some of the materials
found on this site to support the controlled use of fire by hominins include the presence of
burnt flint micro-artifacts, burnt pebbles, and macroscopic burnt flints all in different layers.
Burnt wood was found in for levels at the site while burnt charcoal was found in 10 levels. In
Zambia, at kalambo fall, several artifacts related to the use of fire were found which included
charcoal, carbonized grass plants, charred logs.
Similarly, Zhoukoudian site in Beijing has been recognised for long as a site of first
controlled use of fire despite the criticism that the natural processes had influenced most of
the burnings. However, Zhoukoudian record activities of Homo erectus between 0.4 and 0.7
Million years ago, with several burned bones and numerous artifacts. The two sets of
evidence are repeatedly associated with the controlled use of fire. Berna et al. (2012, 34)
indicate that the cooking hypothesis of Richard Wrangham argued that Homo erectus had an
adaptation to a cooked diet. (Wrangham and Carmody, 2010, 9). As such, he believes that
humanity at this stage of evolution could control fire for use in cooking thus enlighten the
way of living and change the system of diet as they started consuming calories. It brought a
sense of belonging and communal participation as all joined in search of firewood. The traces
of controlled use of fire increased from the 400, 000 years ago and earlier. Many sites which
indicated possible controlled use of fire are notable in the Asian, Middle East, Africa, and the
European countries in most cases, it was seen that the hominids set fires to clear the bushes to
enhance better hunting and increasing the land fertility Examples of the sites that indicated a
controlled use of fire include the Qesem site of Israel and the Beeches Pit site in northwest
Europe. The traces found in the Beeches Pit include burnt shells as well as burnt bones and
combustion features.

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Although archeology does not provide information on when the fire was exactly
controlled, the sites that have been found as indicative of the earliest cases of controlled use
of fire have provided varying evidence. The sites that date 400, 000 years or older contains
evidence of the use of fire by hominids through the presence of fire-cracked rocks, burnt
deposits, baked clays, redden areas in caves, charcoal, burnt lithics, ash and fire-hardened
wood (Wrangham and Carmody, 2010, 15). There are also traces of burnt bones and even
signs of hearths indicators.
The ability of the hominids to control and manipulate fire had different impacts on the
people regarding their evolution. Fire is the reason that the early man recognized the need to
stay warm, eat cooked food, and ward the predators away. Besides, the ability of man to
control fire enabled them to venture into harsh climates. And also separate according to the
societal roles and different adaptation of cooking. Fire affected the behavioral, biological as
well as social activities that the hominins were undertaking (Berna et al., 2012, 45). Among
the discoveries that man had made, fire is probably the greatest, exempting the language.
Indeed, some researchers find that the discovery of the fire was more important than the tools
made by man because it helped him gain higher and more significant evolutionary goals. The
ability of hominins to control fire is the reason the early man consumed the accidentally
cooked food. Surprisingly, these foods had different implications on the evolutionary
capabilities of the hominins.
The accidentally cooked food amid the fire invention resulted in increased
digestibility of such foods like root and starch which increased the availability of different
edible foods to the early man. The cooking hypothesis set by Wrangham indicates that
hominins who lived in more open environments could not feed throughout the years from the
herb resources and the fruits that apes in tropical forests ate for survival (Wrangham and

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Carmody, 2010, 17). They required to adopt another type of foods specifically for sustaining
them during the dry seasons. They also changed biologically as tried to adopt to the soft food
like meat as compared to the roots, they were used of eating which enlarged the molars and
the premolars. The extended use of meats and carbohydrates shorted the premolars and made
the teeth to fit on the jaws. Large teeth among the hominins indicated the dietary stress that
the creatures faced before 3 Million years ago. also, the intestinal tracts decreased as there
was low consumption of fibers as compared to the other primitives who have long tracts to
allow fermentations of the roots for easy digestion. However, an increase in meat-eating is
attested well from 2.6 Million years ago across archeological sites that have established a link
between the cut-marked bones and the stone tools.
However, the art of cooking of vegetables and fibers began to enhance the
digestibility of new foods. The cooking hypothesis argues that the idea of cooking came with
Homo erectus at about 1.7 Million years ago. Gowlett (2016, 3) note that advanced evidence
indicates that part of the human body plans emerged from this period where such features like
the reduced sexual dimorphism and lengthening of the hind limbs started developing on
people. Another notable feature that evolved in the Homo erectus is the reduction in the size
of the teeth to as much as that of the modern humans, increasing the body size allowance. All
these results were realised because the cooked food was rendered soft, had higher
digestibility, and generated higher energy as needed by the human body.
Another observation was from a critic made by Steven R. (February 1989) stated that
the brain of the human increased as they increased more ways of cooking. During middle
Pleistocene the human brain size had grown in size from an average size of ca 600 to about
1300 cc. Having a larger size of the brain required a lot of energy. Therefore, there is the
need for an explanation for the increased size of brains among the Homos if not for the effect

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of fire control and use in cooking. A larger brain requires to be fueled by high-quality diet
foods. Raw food is not rich in energy like cooked food. The invention of fire and the
beginning of cooking motivated the development of larger brains, because of the high energy
arising from the increased digestibility of the food. Besides, larger brains increased the social
cognition and ability to evolve further through higher reasoning and increased capability of
navigating through the challenges of life. Indeed, the social brain and developmental
calculations establish a link of language origins with the rapid changes that happened to
people at this period.
Psychologically evolution brought about the felling of association and what is
described by Abraham Maslow as the hierarchy of beings. Other than the effects on the
evolution of the body, biological and behavior, through cooked food, fire-affected other
factors that enhanced human evolution even further. However, most of these impacts came
much later, but each of them had a different implication for human evolution and adaptation
to the surrounding environment. For instance, the first fire interactions came about 20, 000
years ago and supported the pottery technology, tracing its origins from China where they
improvised the first pots used in cooking. Technologies advanced further at about 10. 000
years ago, as the agriculture started to emerge and spread. Wide foraging of firewood was
also required in the Fixed Neolithic settlements and also in Egypt where the great history of
agriculture evolution came about. About 5000 years ago, the advanced application of fire
beyond the open environments was invented with metalworks technology (Gowlett, 2016,
13). Copper was the first case of metalworks before the discovery of bronze and later the
iron. During these metalworks, temperatures would be raised to extreme levels that facilitated
melting to model the desired items.

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According to the above evidence of fire control indicate the radical change in Homo
over the two million years since the first instance of the use of fire. The ability to control fire
can be attributed to one of the most significant changes that happened to the Homo and their
capabilities since the invention. Fire affected all the branches of humanity which include
biological, social, and cognitive capabilities. It also enabled them to learn to adapt and
change a significant number of practices they had exhibited over the years. Fire influenced
the ability of the early man to stay warm, eat cooked food, and ward the predators away.
Eating the cooked food hastened their body evolution process.