Humans were using fire in Europe 50,000 years earlier than we thought – new research

Human history is intimately entwined with the use and control of fire. However, working out when our relationship with fire began and how it subsequently evolved has been notoriously difficult.

This is partly due to the incomplete nature of archaeological records, and also because fire use was fleeting, making burnt remains difficult to detect.

But our team has found evidence of the controlled use of fire by direct human ancestors – or hominins – at a site in Spain dating to 250,000 years ago. This pushes the earliest evidence of fire control in Europe back by 50,000 years. The findings have been published in Nature Scientific Reports. It is truly special to find the remains of human ancestors and fire at the same location.