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. The oldest technology, fire changed us and human evolution would not have been possible without it.  

Reading

• Gowlett, J. A. J. 2010. Firing up the social brain, in R. Dunbar, C. Gamble, and J. A. J. Gowlett (eds),Social Brain and Distributed Mind, 341-366. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Blackboard – pdf]
• Wrangham, R. W. 2009. Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. London: Profile Books.