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Stones and Stories

Fire

The control of fire transformed the lives of our ancestors. Fire extended the length of the day making it possible to use the night-time for social activity; fire kept predators at bay; fire played a vital role in cooking food which allowed human evolution to take the pathway of larger brains which needed quality foods. However, the evidence for fire is elusive and deciding if it was truly controlled or the result of a lightning strike often difficult for archaeologists to determine. Continue reading →

Introduction to module

Human history needs to be told through things. Texts help but they only reach back into the shallows of our past. In this module we go further to investigate deep human history through the wonderful things left behind. Our aim is to unite the entire span of our evolutionary history by investigating forty wonderful things described for you by experts. The story starts two and a half million years ago with the first stone tools. Continue reading →