Why Did Ancient Humans Start Using Fire? — New Theory Says It Wasn’t Just for Cooking

For years, scientists believed that the main reason why ancient humans started using fire was to cook their food. They control fire to soften meat and tough roots. This is a big step for humanity as it allows them to make their meals safer to eat. However, scientists suggested a new theory that ancient humans may have started using fire not only for cooking but for much more complicated reasons.

Researchers now argue that fire contributed to the development of our brains and changed the way early humans thought. It may have altered sleep, strengthened social bonds, and even helped shape the growth of humans’ cognitive abilities. In other words, fire was not just used for cooking thousands of years ago; it might have served as the light that ignited our civilization.

Firelit Gatherings Sparked Social Bonding and Storytelling

Anthropologist Polly Wiessner recorded conversations among the Ju/’hoansi (!Kung) bushmen in Botswana and Namibia. A study that showed humans during the daytime communicated mainly about work and duties, but talks around a fire involved storytelling, spirituality, and even bigger social concerns.

Around a fire, humans do not just chat; they build trust, empathy, emotional and social bonds. All of these traits are important for building a civilization, and may have been triggered by firelit gatherings of early human beings.

This is one of the uses of fire that most people do not know about, but it is arguably the most important. Controlling fire for cooking and protection from animals is just about surviving, but using them to spark social bonding may have made humans create a complex cultural society.

Read more: Smithsonian Mag

Fire Changed Human Sleep Patterns Compared to Other Primates

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human

Before fire, humans had little to no source of light during nighttime, making exploring or hunting dangerous. However, it also meant that they slept earlier, but with the invention of fire, humans can now stay active past sundown.

While more research is needed, scientists believe that the presence of light, even if it came from the Sun or a fire, interrupts melatonin, delays sleep, and opens extra time for social and mental activity. In simpler words, fire disrupted sleeping patterns, but that may have given early humans some more cognitive practice because of extended brain usage.

Fire for Protection and Cultural Expansion

Early humans most probably instinctively used fire to defend themselves, since if it could hurt them, it could hurt others too. This feature allowed them to camp on territories that belonged to animal predators. It also expanded their hunting ground to more open and colder areas, resulting in migration.

New archaeological evidence from Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa shows microscopic ash and charred bones dated to be about a few million years ago, and since Homo Sapiens only existed for nearly 300,000 years, the ones using that fire were from a different hominin species. Research shows that it was Homo erectus, based on location and era, who used them not just for cooking but for survival and habitat expansion.

Read more: Science Daily

Firelight Laid the Foundations for Meaning, Ritual, and Culture

Countless more years, after the discovery, humans began using fire in different events and ritual places. Different myths, legends, and stories were born and shared, which laid the foundations for culture and traditions.

Researchers like Wrangham and Wiessner emphasize that firelight gatherings weren’t just practical; they are significant for the creation of symbolic thought, meanings, and eventually religion. There are many more theories about the usage of fire in the early days, but these are some of the most important.

Episode 09: Did Cooking Make Us Human? (Re-release)

Author's Final Thoughts

The theory that fire was not just simply used for cooking by ancient humans highlights how important it was in the creation of our culture. Fire may not have just helped us survive; it made us much closer to one another. Now think about it, a simple campfire hundreds of thousands or even millions of years ago may have sparked the first light that would eventually develop into a civilization.

Read next: Scientists Say We’re Still Missing Big Pieces of Our Evolutionary Past — And This Is What They Think Might Be Hiding in the Gaps

References & Further Reading

Berna, F., et al. (2012). Microstratigraphic evidence of in situ fire in the Acheulean strata of Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa. PNAS. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1117620109

Goren-Inbar, N., et al. (2004). Evidence of hominin control of fire at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1095443

Karkanas, P., et al. (2007). Evidence for habitual use of fire at the end of the Lower Paleolithic: site-formation processes at Qesem Cave, Israel. Journal of Human Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2007.04.002

Brown, K. S., et al. (2009). Fire as an engineering tool of early modern humans. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1175028

Wiessner, P. (2014). Embers of society: Firelight talk among the Ju/’hoansi Bushmen. PNAS. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1404212111